Break His Crown
by EternalFluffy
Summary: Jack Spicer gets his greatest desire a special portal that takes him to a strange, twisted world where he rules all! But, world domination isn't all it's cracked up to be... JackxKim in later chapters
1. The Soul Scepter: The World Creator

Xiaolin Showdown, Jack Spicer, Omi, Dojo, and all these other cool things don't belong to me! The only thing I own is this weird Soul Scepter thingy majiggy…

Uh…hi. This is my first Xiaolin Showdown fic, and I don't know a whole lot about the series, so I'm sorry if a lot of the facts are screwed up and everyone is out of character. I've just recently become obsessed with it, and haven't seen a lot of the first season episodes. Needless to say, I have no idea when in the storyline this is taking place, and I have no idea about the who-has-what-Shen-Gong-Wu…but, Rai's not here… This is a mainly Jack fic, so the other characters only appear in this chapter and then at the very end. I'm sorry, Rai fans, but Rai probably won't be appearing in the story at all. Unless I stick him in somewhere in the end. I don't know if they've been to Paris already. I would guess that they have, but… I wanted a chance to show off my French skills. The translations for the French dialogue are at the bottom. Also, I'm sorry for the lame-o maze showdown and the random scientist in Paris; I really couldn't think of anything! I promise, the better stuff is on the way!

These are a few clarifying explanations for "The Mighty Prologue of Doom" in case you get confused. The first section is pretty straightforward, the second is Jack's father talking and Jack "thinking" back to him, and the third is Jack thinking and talking to himself, except for the last line, which is actually Wuya. This will all make sense shortly!

_Words in italics-_ stressed words, thinking, sound effects, or non-English words

WORDS IN ALL CAPS- loud yelling

Oh, and one more important thing! NO FLAMES! Please…I'm sensitive…

---

The Mighty Prologue of Doom!

....Okay, so there really is nothing mighty or um…doom-y about this prologue. I just like to make it snazzy…

---

"The coat of arms, you see, symbolizes our legacy of devotion to the exciting and adventurous! We are the ones that make the planet the wonderful place it is today; we are the ones that most people recognize! And one day… Well… Without…"

The small redheaded boy awoke from his afternoon nap as his father trailed off from his heritage story. This was highly unusual, as normally Mr. Spicer could go on for hours about the family's glorious past, and how their ancestors nearly conquered the planet. This was something new, to hear him stuttering uneasily like this.

"I have no doubt in my mind that… I'm sorry to have to… I hope it won't…" Finally, the tall, imposing man took a deep breath and started over again for the seventh time. "I was very foolish when I was young. _Quite _so. And, unfortunately, you shall pay the consequences."

The boy blinked, confusedly at his father. "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything, Dad!"

"No, I know you didn't. You mustn't blame yourself for this; never blame yourself for it…" Now, the boy rubbed his eyes open and stared at the man with renewed interest. Was there something strange about him…?

"You remember, of course, my stories of the great battles between our family and the other, powerful leaders of the temple…" The boy nodded, dully. He was sick of these stories, since they'd been told to him numerous times, as far back as he could remember.

Yes, the ancient family, with the aid of a powerful sorceress, had rose to improve the world by bringing it under their control. Once it was theirs, they planned to fix everything wrong with it, and the world could become even more "exciting and wonderful" enriched by the "spice of life." But before that could happen, a group of people, two men and two women, headed by the mysterious kung-fu leader and the last living dragon, rose up in defense of the filthy Earth. At least according to Mr. Spicer, this was how it went. There were many brutal battles between the two sides, and they had been winning, but then, the other leader successfully captured their most valuable ally, and it all went downhill from there. Despite their terrible failures in ancient times, the family was still quite prominent now, living in an ornate mansion in China.

But, the boy reasoned, these ancient battles and stories, if true at all, had nothing to do with him. These were things that had happened 1500 years ago… before people even drove cars, worked on computers, or played video games! Somehow, he couldn't imagine a world without cars, computers, or video games. It must have been the most horrible, boring life!

"Well…as a result of my foolishness, you have the powers of both sides within you."

"What?!" the boy suddenly cried, springing from his perch on the tangy orange couch. "I have powers?! Mega-super-ultra-cool!"

"Now, calm down…" his father advised, catching his shoulder before he ran off to try to zap the neighbors. "You must never use your powers, even if you figure out how to use them. Those awful powers are the ones of our adversaries, and will one day destroy everything, reverting the world back to the way it used to be…

_No! _he suddenly realized. _The worst consequences ever! A world without cars, computers, and video games!!!_ He put on his most determined face and saluted his father, stiffly. "Don't worry, Dad!" he cried. "I won't let that happen!!!"

"Good boy," Mr. Spicer replied, smiling slyly. "Now, John…" The boy's determined face drooped at these words. He hated being called "John". "There is only _one _time I will need you to use those powers. And if they are used in this action, I don't believe they will manifest. Still, you must be wary…"

"It's okay, Dad!" the boy cried again. "I won't use my powers! I can't use my powers…"

---

"WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?! THIS IS PERPOSTEROUS! YOU ARE NO USE TO ME!"

_Neither are you._

"GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

_Strange. Then why are you always trying to keep me from "straying"?_

"SCORES DON'T MATTER!"

_Depends on which "scores" you're talking about…_

"I don't get it…are you trying to send us a message? Bah! Teenagers these days and their subtlety! Why when I was your age, I…"

_I don't think you were ever my age._

"Ah, it doesn't mater…your aunt is coming soon. Get out of sight."

_Out of sight, out of mind… I claim this basement as my own, and name it "Out of Sight"._

---

"Why? Why is the world so messed up, Lady? Do you think it's because of the other side? Well, that's a stupid question, of course you do, but…"

_I think I really am crazy. I'm talking to this thing as if it were alive. Well, it is… At least, it's supposed to be… Or maybe they're just trying to make me look like an idiot!_

"Are you in there, Lady? Can you hear me? Yo!"

_Did I really just say "yo"?_

"Wake up, will ya? You're getting me into a lot of trouble. I suppose it doesn't matter to you, but… I'm on your side; I'm one of your own kind, remember? Well, you wouldn't know me… You might know my grandfather…my great-grandfather? My great-great-grandfather? My great-great-_great_-grandfather?"

_Hmm, how many greats are there for 1500 years?_

"Wait…I think I know…"

_He said we were heralds of the wonderful new Earth enriched by the "spice of life"…_

"It's because we lost. The world is in that "reversing" state or whatever… I know!"

_It's not like it's impossible. Some other guys have nearly done it before, and in modern times, it would be much easier…_

"Yes! If _I _ruled the world, it wouldn't be messed up anymore! That's what he was trying to tell me! It's my destiny! I could fix everything, and then everyone would finally respect me- the one and only Jack Spicer! Is that it, Lady? That's how it's connected, isn't it?"

"…Don't call me "Lady"…"

---

In an ancient temple, far, far away from that particular world on a hill, an elderly man in a Chinese priests' outfit stood on the steps of his ancient and sacred temple. He rolled out a long piece of parchment as a lizard-like animal slithered up onto his shoulder. "Once, when the forces of darkness sprang from the underground, five powerful warriors rose up against it, and using the power of the five sacred elements, fought to prevent that force from gaining control…"

Suddenly, the lizard screamed and gripped his head, as if something were trying to tear him apart. "No…no, it's happening…how could it?"

"Dojo?!" the man cried in alarm.

"One of them…one of them must have…" Before he could continue, Dojo slipped off the man's shoulder to the floor in a faint.

"No, Dojo!" he cried, kneeling next to the injured, minimized dragon. "You, Omi! Please find a suitable place for Dojo to recover…"

"Yes, Master Fung," the small, bald-headed child replied, rushing to the scene and scooping the slumped gecko-like lizard into his hands. He always wondered why his temple master kept a gecko with him wherever he went, but dared not question him to find out that it was a dragon.

Master Fung, knowing that the keeper dragon would be fine, turned back out to the landscape. What he had said…did that mean…? Whatever it meant, he felt it in the air. Some powerful force was at work here, and perhaps the elemental warriors would rise once again in its opposition. And thus begins the Great Xiaolin Showdown…called by many others the Great Blind Showdown…for reasons yet unknown…

---

Chapter 1: The Soul Scepter- the World Creator

"The Soul Scepter," the old temple leader spoke up, once again reading from a magical scroll. A new image had appeared in the center of it, along with the description of the new magical item. Dojo had broken out again from magical energy, and Omi had spent the last twenty minutes trying to soothe the burn. "One of the 'forbidden Shen-Gong-Wu'. The Soul Scepter can be used to capture the souls of other entities- human or animal."

"Capture their souls?!" Kimiko cried in appall. "That's terrible! I didn't know there were bad Shen-Gong-Wu…"

"Well, that is why it is forbidden," Master Fung replied, matter-of-factly.

"It can't be completely bad…" Omi spoke up, "Perhaps this power could be used to help those entities…if they didn't want to cross over…"

"Argh!" Dojo cried, wriggling in the young monk's hands. "I don't care if it's a forbidden Shen-Gong-Wu, just please hurry up and find it!"

"So…where is the forbidden Shen-Gong-Wu?"

"F-F-Frrrr-ance!" Dojo quickly grew to normal size, his front end spilling out the door. "C'mon, kids, get a move on! …Itchy…"

"I don't feel so good about this…" Clay stated as he warily boarded Dojo Airlines.

"Yeah…me neither…" Kimiko admitted. "But…let's go anyway… A soul-snatching Shen-Gong-Wu…"

Omi climbed up next to her. "Even if it is forbidden and dangerous, our mission is not to acquire it, but to snatch it from the grasps of Wuya and Jack Spicer!"

The three remaining Xiaolin Warriors stared nervously at each other. "Yes, definitely! I can't even imagine what terrible things would happen if _they _got a hold of a soul-sucking Shen-Gong-Wu like that…"

"Well then, what are we waiting around here for?" Dojo cried, growing even more agitated. "Let's get this show on the road! …I mean, in the sky…" Only a few seconds later, the three friends were bobbing along on the coils of infected dragon skin as they drifted off towards France to recover the destructive Soul Scepter.

---

It was tiring trying to plan a coup d'etat while appeasing to the wishes of a 1500-year-old evil sorceress spirit. The gothic teenage boy stared down at a set of complicated blueprints on a dingy desk and rubbed an eye on his vampire-white face. In fact, a vampire was what he most resembled, with his painted white skin, long black trench coat, and small red eyes. He stared groggily at the pages of notes. He had written these up on a sudden impulse at one 'o clock this morning, and now they weren't making any sense. "This has to be some kind of brilliant evil plan, but…why can't I understand it?!" With a thud, his head hit the top of the desk, goggles first, unable to hold itself up any longer.

"_Jack_!!!" a high, snakelike voice suddenly cried from the distance.

"Not now, Wuya," Jack Spicer mumbled into his desk. "I'm taking a nap…" But no sooner had the small, clear purple ghost screeched "GET UP!!!", when he was on his feet again, saluting his evil master. "Oh, did I say 'taking a nap'?" he said, sheepishly. "I _meant _to say 'taking over the world'. That was what I was doing!"

"Sure you were," the powerful sorceress replied, taking on her sarcastic tone. "Now, I need you to get serious here! A very powerful Shen-Gong-Wu has just activated…"

"This isn't going to be like last time, is it?" Jack asked, suspiciously. "When you had me go get the powerful Shen-Gong-Wu and then ditch me for some Cala-Wala guy…"

"No interruptions!" Wuya snapped back at him. "This is very important…the Soul Scepter…can take the souls of any living creatures!"

"Take…souls?" Jack asked, a little confused with why this was so important. "Why would we need a bunch of people's souls?"

Wuya was about to answer, but just continued smiling sinisterly as only she could do. "Never mind…but you better bring that Shen-Gong-Wu back with you…can you imagine what would happen if it got into the hands of those Xiaolin Warriors?"

"Wait, Wuya," Jack asked, still suspicious. "You wouldn't use it on me, right?"

"Of course not, you dolt!" Wuya cried. "I can't use the Shen-Gong-Wu if I'm not human, remember?!"

"Oh…yeah…of course," Jack replied, placing his hands in front of his face in defense. "I knew _that_…"

"So, get on it!" the miniature ghost witch cried. "Do I have to tell you everything?"

"Okay, okay," Jack finally agreed, reaching into a cabinet to grab some of the magical items they already possessed. A minute later, he was sitting behind the wheel of a flying machine that looked like a cross between a spaceship and a train. The tracking device he had cleverly installed into the cockpit pointed the way towards France, along with the label "Soul Scepter" above one region of the country.

Once setting the machine at a good speed and at the exact direction of France, Jack sat back in the driver's seat and let the cruise control take over. It was nice to be away from Wuya's nagging for a while, and he closed his eyes, listening to the lulling hum of the engine. _No! _he told himself, shaking himself awoke again. _Don't fall asleep! You'll miss France! _Just as he suspected, the landscape of Europe began appearing on the tracking screen, and Jack gathered his…or rather, _their_ Shen-Gong-Wu to prepare for the item's appearance.

---

"Ah…vive la France!" Dojo cried as he landed in the middle of a bustling Paris street, and various, busy residents screamed at the sight of a giant dragon.

"Uh…you should've found a deserted area before you landed, Dojo…" Clay told the dragon transportation.

"Aw, who cares?" Dojo answered as the three Xiaolin Warriors slipped from his long, scaly back. "Yes…" he said to himself. "Make sure to slide _all the way down_! That feels good…"

Kimiko rolled her eyes. "I hope this doesn't get out into the news. It'll be all your fault."

"Just chill," Dojo told her, shrinking to gecko size and curling up in Clay's hand. "I've got everything under control."

Omi stared, confusedly at the little dragon. "Ok! Whatever you say, Dojo! I shall have cooling sensations!" He hunched over and gripped his arms, pretending to shiver. Everyone stared, in exasperation.

"Omi…that wasn't what I meant…" Dojo tried to explain, but Omi couldn't understand and continued to walk around in "chilled" form as they traveled the streets of Paris. The befuddled French people, already rattled from the appearance of a giant dragon, continued to stare at these four, since seeing a Chinese boy, a Japanese girl, and a cowboy with a pet gecko was extremely unusual in France. They looked up from their piles of shopping bags, easels, and coffee at the newcomers.

Kimiko quickly pulled on a beret and redid her hair in order to better blend in. Clay and Omi, however had no method of mingling. Clay managed to find some ointment at a shop to shut Dojo up, but Omi was still walking around "chilled" and attracting a lot of attention.

"E-Excuse me…" he managed to speak to one lady who was looking down at him. "Have you seen a scepter around here? Or…anything that looks like a scepter?"

"_Hien(1)_?" the lady replied. "_Je ne comprend pas(2)_."

"D-Do you…sp-speak…English? Or…Chinese?!" Omi asked in a slow voice, growing afraid.

"_Je ne te comprend pas, petit garcon… Tu as un tourist(3)_?"

"T-Tourist? What about a tourist?" Omi sighed. "It's no use, I do not speak or understand French!" He began to walk away from the lady, gripping his arms even tighter.

"_Ou est-que tu vas(4)_?" she asked, following him. "_Ou est ta mere, petit garcon_? _Tu es perdu(5)_?" She began running after him.

"Augh!" Omi cried, running away from her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you!" The lady continued to tail him down the Paris streets.

Kimiko stepped out just in front of them, studying a map of the city and trying to figure out where the Soul Scepter might be.

"Augh!" Omi screamed in the background. "I am being chased by a mad Frenchwoman!!!" Meanwhile, the woman chased him in circles, a concerned look on her face, as she called, "_Je veux t'aider(6)_!"

"Well…hmm…" Kimiko continued, looking at the side notes on attractions in the city. "Come visit new artifacts found from the Age of the Kings… Now on display at the Musee du Pouvoir."

"Huh? Kimiko?!" Omi cried, at last noticing her presence. He finally lost the French lady and ran over beside her. "Oooh, a map! Good thinking! I would have gotten one, but…"

"Just be quiet," Kimiko interrupted. "Look, I think the Soul Scepter might be here." She pointed to the advertisement on the side of the map, which showed several royal artifacts, including a crown, a cape, and…a scepter.

"It _is _the Soul Scepter!" Omi cried. "That is exactly how it looked on Master Fung's scroll!" He turned around to go find Clay, but it was too late. Clay had already found them. The tall, blond cowboy walked nonchalantly up, holding Dojo, who was soaking in a pile of ointment. "Clay, Dojo!" Omi cried in surprise. "Great news! Kimiko has just located the Soul Scepter!"

"Phew…" Dojo replied. "I don't know how much more of this I could have taken…"

"It's in the Musee du Pouvoir…" her hand moved across the paper as she searched. "Right…there!" Her finger suddenly stopped on a small square symbol, which, according to the key, meant "museum" with a sign after it saying "Musee du Pouvoir".

"Yes!" Omi cried, growing excited at the prospect of obtaining a new Shen-Gong-Wu. "It's time to go to the museum!" At least this time, passersby could mistake him for an overly enthusiastic tourist. Kimiko looked at the directions on the map, and the three of them set off for the museum where the Soul Scepter sat in waiting for them.

---

_Bleep, bleep! _Jack Spicer was wide-awake now as the detecting screen began giving off this shrill blaring. That had to mean that powerful Shen-Gong-Wu was very close. He quickly sat up and read the small labels on the screen. "Soul Scepter…Musee du Pouvoir?"

The dot on the screen showed the museum's exact location on the map of France, and according to the machine, he was only a mile away from it. Jack stared confusedly at the name of the building. "…Doesn't that mean chicken?" he wondered aloud. Typing the name into a translator in another section of the cockpit, the real translation popped up on the screen- "Museum of Power".

"The museum of power? Yes!" Jack rubbed his hands together in evil anticipation. "And as soon as I win that Shen-Gong-Wu, the power will belong to me!" He stared back at the screen. It would still be a few minutes before he reached the museum. "Well…" he said to himself. "This would be a pretty good time to break out in evil laughter… Ahahahahaha!"

---

Clay, Omi, and Kimiko busted through the doors of the Musee du Pouvoir, panting. Their casual stroll down Paris had become a race, because on their way, they had spotted Jack Spicer's flying car thing and rushed to beat him to the museum. As they looked around, they didn't see any signs of ancient demons or evil geniuses, so they relaxed a little and grabbed museum maps.

"Ugh…" Omi commented. "We just got rid of the old map, and now we need a _new _one?"

"We've got to find the section of the Age of Kings stuff," Kimiko told him. The guards in the museum gave them strange looks, but let them continue. Clay quickly shoved Dojo under his hat (much to the little dragon's displeasure) because pets weren't allowed.

As she had obviously become the unofficial map-reader of the Xiaolin Warriors, Kimiko located the general direction of the display. "It's in section C," she spoke up.

"What good is that?!" Omi cried in desperation. "There are still 25 other sections to wade through to find…"

"Section C," Clay finished, pointing to a directional sign above them with the letter C, and pointing to the left hallway.

"Okay…" Omi replied, feeling a little stupid. The three Xiaolin Warriors hurried down the hallway. The French visitors and tourists stared at the group of rushing monks as they whizzed past. It certainly would be the most interesting thing they would see there all day.

"There it is!" Omi cried as he spotted the giant banner reading "Age of the Kings". Unfortunately, a large crowd had gathered around the display, and they couldn't see any of the artifacts. Red rope barriers surrounded the pedestal, with a suited-up security guard standing next to it for extra reinforcement.

"Alright, Omi," Dojo whispered, poking a teensy bit out of Clay's hat. "Since you're the smallest, you slip in among the crowd and try to get a look at the display. If you see the Soul Scepter, try to grab it when no one's looking."

"No showdown? Aww…I want to do a showdown…"

"Just go!" Kimiko cried. "With such a powerful Shen-Gong-Wu at stake, it's better not to have a showdown and chance losing it."

Omi sighed. "Stealth is not my preferred method of obtaining magical artifacts, but…if it is the right thing to do…" Finally, the short monk slipped between the legs of the museum tourists, pushing his way to the front. He emerged again just in front of the red barrier.

There were, indeed, a group of rusted old objects; a crown, clasps to an old cape, pieces of jewelry everywhere… Then, finally, he saw it. The Soul Scepter lied at the center of the platform, covered with rust. It was long and curled around at the end, grasping a red, cloudy globe. Even through the ancient dirt and decay, it was easy to see the mysterious mist of power swirling around inside.

Omi glanced around the immediate area. How could he wait until no one was looking? He'd be waiting all day. Omi gritted his teeth. He'd have to grab it and run as fast as he could to avoid being caught. Looking down, he noticed that all he had with him was the Orb of Tornami. Well, maybe if he flooded them out…

Feeling terribly like a thief, Omi finally took a deep breath and reached out for the scepter. At last, he felt the rough, cold surface against his palm…but it didn't light up. Glancing over in confusion, Omi noticed another, pale hand on the head portion of the staff. "Jack Spicer!" he cried, surprised with his sudden reappearance.

"The one and only," Jack replied with an evil grin. "You guys didn't even _know_ I was following you!"

Omi shook with anticipation and excitement. It looked like he was going to get his showdown after all. "Jack Spicer, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!"

Jack opened his mouth to make a challenge, but was interrupted by a frenetic security guard. "You kids!!!" he yelled. "Don't touch the display!!!"

"But you don't understand…" Omi tried to explain. "We are conducting an ancient and very crucial magical challenge…" A second security guard choked him around the neck and cut off his sentence, while the first one did the same with Jack. "Let me go!" Omi cried. "Orb Tornami!" A blast of water hit the guard in the face, knocking him over.

Jack pressed a button, causing propellers to pop out of the device on his back and smack the other guard in the face. By now, the crowd around them was beginning to erupt in panic and shock.

"Omi!" Kimiko and Clay cried, bursting through the mob to see if their friend was okay. Amazingly, both Omi and Jack had managed to keep their grip on the Soul Scepter through the fray.

"Firstonetotheentrancewins!" Jack called, speaking quickly before the guards got back up again.

"Fine.MyOrbofTornamiagainstyourJetBootsu," Omi replied.

"Let'sgo! XiaolinShowdown!" they both called. As soon as the words left their mouths, the world around them began to change. The people disappeared, and the entire museum morphed into a maze. Clay and Kimiko rose above the maze in a floating stone carriage, looking down on the showdown from above, so they could see all the twists and turns of the maze.

Clay took Dojo out from underneath his hat, and the little dragon sucked in the air in desperation. When he got a look at the scenery, his eyes popped out. "What?! They're doing a showdown for the Soul Scepter?!"

"Yeah, I told Omi not to, but he just doesn't listen…" Kimiko explained.

"Ohh, this is bad, this is bad…" Dojo said, slithering around in circles. "Omi better win that showdown…or…who _knows _what'll happen!"

From their starting positions, Omi and Jack looked over at each other in resentment. "Gong Yi Tempai!" they said in unison before barreling into the twisting halls of the maze.

As they each sprinted through the maze, the other Xiaolin Warriors sized up the chances. "Well, technically, if Omi doesn't take any wrong turns, then he's got the shorter route…" Clay surmised.

Suddenly, Jack stopped in the middle of the maze and used his jet boots to hover above the maze. "Heh…that little pipsqueak's got the right idea," he said to himself, noticing how much closer Omi was to the entrance. He floated above the walls and landed right in back of him.

"Hey! Cheater!!!" Kimiko yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Jack.

"I'm not cheating!" he yelled back up at them. "I'm only using my Shen-Gong-Wu!"

"Yeah, you're using your Shen-Gong-Wu to _cheat_, you cheater!"

Omi heard the ruckus behind him and realized that Jack Spicer must have just used some kind of trick. He turned around and calling, "Orb of Tornami!" created a tidal wave that washed down the hall towards Jack. "Phew," Omi said, continuing to run towards the entrance when he didn't see the spiky red hair of the goth boy anymore. "That was pretty close. Good-bye Jack Spicer, hello Soul Scepter!"

"Haha! Don't be so sure about that!" a voice came from the side. Omi looked confusedly to the right to see Jack, using his boots to sprint down the wall and away from the water. Omi gaped, not expecting anything like this. "Eat my dust, dome-head!" Jack taunted as he accelerated and just passed Omi, zooming further ahead with the help of his helicopter rotors.

"Tornado Strike, Water!" Omi yelled, taking aim at his nemesis. Unfortunately, the swirling turrets of water were only sprayed back at him as they hit the rotors. "That's it…" Omi said, clenching his fists as an idea struck him. "Away with Mr. Kindly Person! Orb of Tornami, Ice!" The blasts of ice that erupted from the blue globe crashed down the walls of the maze, creating a clear path to the entrance.

"And you called _me _a cheater?!" Jack complained, lifting into the sky. With no more walls, he was free to go wherever in the maze he wanted, and made a beeline for the spot on the other side marked, "Entrance" in flashing neon letters.

"Orb of Tornami!" Omi cried again, creating another massive tidal wave. Jumping gracefully onto one of the pieces of the wall, he used it as a surfboard, approaching the entrance and easily catching up with Jack.

"Go Omi, go!!!" Kimiko and Dojo yelled from the floating carriage, excited and afraid at the same time.

Omi and Jack once again exchanged resented looks as they flew side by side towards the "entrance" sign. It was getting closer now…in just a few moments, the showdown would be over. The two competitors still remained right beside each other, maybe one nudging a bit ahead of the other now and then, but still evenly matched. At last, they were right on the entrance. The Soul Scepter floated right it front of them…someone just had to grab it in order to win. Approaching at the exact same velocity, Omi and Jack reached out at the same time to grab it.

The spectators up in the sky sucked their breath in, full of suspense. There was a bright flash of light, blinding everyone in the area.

"What happened?" Kimiko asked. "Who won? I can't see!"

The maze disappeared, and they felt as the solid ground of the Musee du Pouvoir blinked into existence again below their feet.

"Huh?" Clay asked, shading his eyes and trying to see through the penetrating light.

Slowly, the light began to dim as the world returned to normal, and a group of unconscious tourists lied, sprawled out at their feet. Then…they saw the Soul Scepter, which had now turned a bright golden color…in the hands of Jack Spicer.

He looked, confusedly down at the long pole in his hands. "I won?" Then, his eyes lit up in sudden recognition. "I won! I won I won I won I won…"

"I…lost…" Omi stated, obviously, sulking on the floor.

Dojo stared, unbelievably at the scene before them. Surely, this was some kind of nightmare. _Jack Spicer _had just won the _Soul Scepter_?! It just didn't seem possible.

"Y-You cheated!" Kimiko yelled, unable to say anything else, out of shock.

"Did not!" Jack argued back. "I won this Shen-Gong-Wu fair and square, and there's _nothing _you can do about it!"

"He's right," Dojo sadly admitted. "For once."

Jack grinned, excitedly, and lifted into the sky. "Well, see you losers at the next showdown. Wait 'til Wuya sees this!" He lifted through a hole in the ceiling and back up to his hovering vehicle above the museum. The Xiaolin Warriors watched, worriedly.

"I am sorry…my friends…" Omi at last spoke up, groveling at their feet. "I have failed you…I am unworthy of the Dragon title…"

"Hey, don't worry, Omi," Clay said, kneeling beside the little monk. "It wasn't your fault."

"You tried your best…" Kimiko added, the disappointment in her voice apparent.

Dojo grew to full size again, and they dragged him aboard. "Let's go back to the temple…"

"I don't know what happened…" Omi continued. "Victory was right within my grasp…but then it slipped out…" he hung his round head in shame.

"It's okay, we can win it back from him someday," Kimiko tried to reassure him.

"Yes…" Dojo hesitantly agreed. "But Jack better not ever figure out how to use it… And in the hands of Wuya, it would be unstoppable!" The Dragons' ride back was very painful as they imagined, in vivid detail, all the terrible things that could happen as a result of this loss.

An hour later, they arrived again at the entrance to the Xiaolin temple. Master Fung looked down at the serious, concerned faces that greeted him, and became even graver. "What's the matter, young Dragons?" he asked.

"We've got bad news, Master Fung…" Kimiko slowly admitted.

"…We've lost the Soul Scepter," Omi finished.

---

Instead of going straight back to his "evil lair", Jack decided to hang around Paris a little while longer and celebrate. After all, he'd just won one of the most powerful Shen-Gong-Wu, and he hadn't won a Xiaolin Showdown in a long time.

The city folk cleared the way as he skipped along. Apparently, they didn't have many gothic teenagers in France. At least none holding strange golden staffs and singing in English. Jack made up a new theme song off the top of his head as he paraded down the Paris streets, twirling the Soul Scepter like a baton. Finally, when he couldn't think of any more words that would fit the tune of his new song, stopped and studied the staff for a while.

"How does this thing work anyway? It's supposed to capture souls… Well, let's try it out on these French people! They won't mind being trapped in a staff for a while, will they?" Supposing it worked like all other Shen-Gong-Wu, he held it up over the freaked-out people around him and cried, "Soul Scepter!" He stood back and waited for an explosion of power, people to disappear, or a powerful suction current, but none of it came.

"What? C'mon, you're a Shen-Gong-Wu! You should work when I say your name! Soul Scepter!" Still, the scepter remained solidly in his hand without so much as a magical glow. "Soul Scepter! Soul Scepter! Soul Scpeter!" Jack yelled, shaking the living daylights out of the item in frustration. That gathering crowd of people began laughing at the strange and humorous sight.

"Aw, shaddup!" Jack yelled at them, battering them out of the way with the scepter. He broke through the people and stormed away down the street, not really knowing where he was going, but just wishing to get away at all costs. "Hey, leave it to Jack Spicer to find a use for this stupid thing!" he said, beaming at the staff. Well, it couldn't really capture people's souls, but at least it was made out of heavy gold and was quite useful for bashing people over the head with.

His enthusiasm gone, Jack trudged along the city streets, glancing at the posters in the store windows. "Maybe I should get back to the lair," he finally decided. "Wuya would know how to work this thing…" But, just when his mind was almost made up, his eye fell upon an interesting poster in the window of a dilapidated old store.

The advertisement was all in French, so he had no idea what it said, but it was the picture in the center that caught his attention. Several people were standing inside a dome-like structure with yellow beams of energy shooting into their bodies. It looked like something out of a science-fiction movie, but it looked incredibly realistic.

Jack shrugged and at last looked away from the intriguing poster. "Ah, well, maybe this used to be a movie theater. Wonder what that movie was about. It sure had good special effects…"

"Excuse me, young man," an unfamiliar voice spoke up from out of nowhere. Jack frantically searched the area, realizing that the voice was talking to him, but he didn't see anybody. "Over here," the male voice continued, chuckling slightly.

This time, he saw a man in a long white lab coat waving at him from the door of that broken-down building. At last, Jack confusedly approached the man and asked, coldly, "What do _you _want?"

"I couldn't help noticing how you took an interest in my poster. American, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Jack replied, shoving the Soul Scepter into a holder on his back. "What's that got to do with anything?"

The man seemed to grow more excited with this confirmation, which only confused him further. "Well…you see, I've been looking for someone to help me with my experiment. No one in Paris is willing to try, even though I guarantee that they'll be safe. So I decided to just stay here for a little while longer before moving the headquarters to America…"

"What kind of experiment?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow. Was this mad scientist planning on doing something weird with him, just because he stopped to look at that poster? Well, if he tried anything, he always had the Soul Scepter to defend himself with, right?

Now, the scientist man was even more excited. "I have successfully created…a portal to different dimensions!"

At this statement, Jack's eyes lit up with sudden interest. "Really? I tried to make one of those once, but it ended up sending me to Antarctica, and I had to fly all the way back to China… Does yours really work?"

"Oh? So you're an inventor too?" the man asked, slightly amused at his statement.

"Of course I am!" Jack retaliated, noticing his disbelief. "I am Jack Spicer, the evil boy genius! I've made all kinds of evil robot armies, flying vehicles, this helicopter pack here…even a time machine! …you still don't believe me, do you?" He was just about to press the button on his helicopter pack and bring his flying train-like vehicle over, but the scientist held up his hands.

"No, no, of course I believe you, I was just surprised. That's quite an accomplishment for someone so young…"

"Yes, it is," Jack replied, putting his hands on his hips, haughtily. "I'm just so amazing, aren't I?"

The scientist let him gloat for a little while longer before pulling him towards the door of the old building. "Well, I need you to test out my machine," he insisted. "Since you're experienced with this sort of thing, I know you will have no doubts about going through…"

"Wait a minute," Jack resisted, tugging his coat out of the man's grasp. "What do _I_ get out of this?"

The man smiled, almost mysteriously. "Well, you get to choose what kind of world you want to go to."

"Well…" Jack thought about it for a while, looking up at that sky, and then down at a watch he randomly pulled out of an unseen pocket. Wuya would be waiting for him to return with the Soul Scepter, and she'd be very angry if he lost it on the way back. Then, thinking a little harder, he realized that it was probably useless anyway. If this man had a dimension portal that truly worked, perhaps he could use it to trap those Xiaolin Dragons in another dimension forever! Now that would be a lot more useful than an Shen-Gong-Wu with no magic powers. "Okay…" Jack finally agreed, sticking out a gloved hand. "You got yourself a deal."

The scientist eagerly seized his hand and whisked him away down a darkened staircase, into the old building.

Jack smiled as he observed the various, blinking, metallic machines surrounding them. _This looks a lot like my lair, _he thought, _maybe…I've found a partner!_

"Viola!" the scientist cried, gesturing to a large, dome-like machine, the crack at the top indicating where it would peel open.

"It's just like the poster," Jack commented.

"Yup!" the scientist said, proudly. "Unfortunately, the picture on that poster was digitally enhanced because no one has gone through it yet. Do you mind if I take a picture of you while you're testing the machine?"

"No problem," Jack agreed, fixing his collar. He looked down at the control panel and tried to decipher just what all the functions of the various switches and levers were. "So I really can go to whatever kind of world I want?" he asked, a bit suspicious again.

"Yes," the scientist replied. "At least that's what it's supposed to do. You're going to be the judge of that. Now…" he pushed him away from the control panel. "What kind of dimension do you want to do to?"

Jack's eyes lit up as he realized just where he could go. "A world in the future…where I rule everything!"

The man frowned as he thought of what a conceited boy this was, but finally began tapping out the command on the panel. If he wanted to finish the experiment, he'd have to comply with his new egotistical partner. Pulling one lever, he set the power level on maximum, and tapped out a code on a small screen in front of him. "Huh?" Already, the dome was opening itself up with only the date set. That was unusual… oh well, if it worked, it only meant a new advancement on his work. "Okay, we're ready!" he called over to the anticipating goth.

"Yea!" Jack cried, forgetting for the moment where he was or who he was with. He barreled up the stairs and straight into the glimmering light in the center of the machine.

_And so hasty…_

With a terribly bright flash of light that filled the entire room, the machine reacted. The scientist shaded his eyes and tried to take a picture through the light, but it was useless. When the shine finally dimmed, Jack was gone.

"Well…" the scientist surmised. "It sent him _somewhere_. Probably back to Antarctica…" That was when he noticed the code on the screen in front of him. It read, 2048. "2048? That's all it needed? It must be off then… It had to be off…"

---

French translations:

(1)Huh?

(2)I don't understand

(3)I don't understand you, little boy. Are you a tourist?

(4)Where are you going?

(5)Where is your mother, little boy? Are you lost?

(6)I want to help you!


	2. Welcome to the Hill!

Like always, nothing in this story belongs to me. Just the Soul Scepter thing, and um…the guards!

Yes, finally it's going to get interesting. You'll learn what the different world actually is, and a lot more about the place, and how it works later. I tried to put a few funny lines in here, so laugh at the confused guards! I know in here, I imply that Jack actually lives in China,though I've seen it saidthat he lives in America somewhere. My little theory, which you'll see later, is that he was born in America, but later forced to move to China, because that's what I originally thought. Finally, yeah, I sort of lied when I said the Xiaolin Dragons wouldn't be showing up again…but not really…

Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews!!! (starts crying with happiness) I'm so glad you all like the story…and that was only supposed to be an introduction! Please review this chapter for me, too. I'll have some more updates after the holidays.

---

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Hill!

Jack couldn't hold in his screaming as a terribly strong force crackled around and inside of him. He gripped his own body, feeling like he was gong to tear apart. "Stop! STOP!" he shrieked, hoping that lunatic professor could hear him. How could he have been so stupid? This was just a trap…a trap aiming to destroy him! Just when Jack thought his life would be over, the crackling ceased, and he felt a stinging pain as he fell backwards against a ragged, rocky ground.

"Ow!" He sat up and rubbed his backside, glancing around confusedly. As far as the eye could see, there was only land- flat, dry, rocky land. A small windstorm swept by, blowing dust everywhere and making Jack sneeze.

"_Now_ where am I?" he wondered aloud. "Arizona? This is like a desert! Yeah, right…like he would actually send me to my perfect world…" He pressed a button, and the propellers popped out again. "Oh, well," he said, sighing. "Gotta fly back to China again…I hope I don't run out of battery power over the Indian Ocean like I did that other time…"

But, before Jack could lift off into the sky, the rocks around him slowly opened up, revealing their true natures as plastic disguises for surveillance cameras! "Warning! Warning!" a dull, robotic voice blared out. "Unauthorized use of a HeliPack! Unauthorized use of a HeliPack!"

"Hey!" Jack yelled back at the voice, although it couldn't hear him. "This is _my_ helicopter pack! …Or HeliPack…or whatever. I made it myself, so it's the only one in the world! I'm certainly authorized to use it!"

"Unauthorized use of a HeliPack! False claims!"

"False claims?!" Jack retaliated. "Now you don't believe me?!" He opened his mouth to continue yelling back at the computer voice, but at the moment, he noticed an army of tall, muscular men clad in onyx armor, and bearing Heylin crests on their chests come rushing towards him from every direction.

"Arrest!!!" they yelled in unison.

Jack blinked, incredulously. "Uh…I take that back," he said to himself. "I don't think this is Arizona…"

The angry guards quickly surrounded him, all staring down at him like mindless bulldogs. At last, the one in front of him clicked a pair of handcuffs around his wrists, so fast he didn't even see it happen.

"What the…? I wasn't doing anything wrong!" "For once…" he added under his breath. "I was just trying to use my helicopter pack thing to fly home to China!"

The guards absentmindedly scratched their heads in confusion. "Durrr…what's China?"

Jack quickly grew frustrated with them. These big muscle men were so unbelievably stupid! It made him suddenly grateful that he was skinny. "Hello! _China_! It's a country in Asia! People with slanted eyes, black hair, temples, chow mein, egg fu yung, panda bears…come on, now…"

"People with slanted eyes?!" one guard cried, appalled at the very thought. "I've never seen anyone with slanted eyes…"

"What's a panda bear?" another asked.

"I didn't know bears could pander," his companion replied in astonishment. Jack smacked himself in the head.

"The main chow is young egg!" one guard in the back cried. "That's what he's trying to say!"

"It _better _be young."

"I know! I know!" another finally summarized. "We need to kill those people with black hair and mutated eyes on their temples, before we can have our main chow- young eggs! But, then we have a pandering bear to deal with…"

They all broke into guffawing laughter. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" the leader cried. "So…this China is some outlandish prophecy?"

"No!" Jack tried to explain. "It's where I live!"

This only produced more crazy laughter. "I didn't know generators named their dwellings!" the same guard in the back roared.

The leader frowned. "Well, whatever kind of crazy loon you are, you cannot plead insanity for such behavior. Boys- take him to be judged," he commanded his troops.

As the beefy, dim-witted guards surrounded him, Jack finally got a good look at their faces. Every single one of them had powdered paper-white skin, black marks under their eyes, and another one curving down their left cheeks. "What the…" he said to himself before launching an attack on them. "Hey! That's _my _face paint! You _stole _my face paint! _You're _the ones who should be arrested, copycats!"

The leader of the guards turned back around to glare at him. "That's quite enough out of _you_, little generator," he advised. "Tell us, what is your name?"

"Jack Spicer," he answered proudly, convinced that they would unhand him as soon as they heard his name.

The leader only looked even more enraged. "You _real _name, please…"

"I _told _you!" Jack argued back. "Jack Spicer! That _is _my real name!!!"

The guards handled him more roughly now, practically shoving him forward. "Oh, we'll find out what your real name is…after you're executed!"

_Executed_?! Jack struggled in the strong arms of the guards. "Let me go!!! I'm telling the truth!!! I'm innocent!!! I don't want to die!!!" He promptly began to bawl and throw a tantrum, but the men easily held him back.

Marching steadily in one direction, they began to chant off his offences, like an army of police officers. "Unauthorized use of a HeliPack, false claims, disrespectful behavior, resisting authority…unauthorized use of a HeliPack, false claims, disrespectful behavior, resisting authority…"

Finally, when Jack ran out of energy to wail, he looked around, noticing the long, flat expanse around them. "Hey…" he asked his captors. "Where are we going anyway?"

"Unauthorized use…"

Jack growled in frustration. "Will you stop saying that? It's getting really annoying."

"…behavior, resisting authority…"

Jack just sighed and hung his head in defeat. If only he could reach the Soul Scepter strapped on his back, he could bash them all over the heads and escape. He struggled again, maneuvering his handcuffed hands over his head and feeling around between his shoulder blades. It was gone! He frantically searched the men surrounding him, assuming that they had taken it from him when he hadn't been looking. There was no trace of the sparkling golden staff.

"That's it!" Jack suddenly cried, not knowing that he was talking out loud. "That crazy scientist man must have taken it from me while I was transporting here! He lured me there because he wanted my Shen-Gong-Wu, the little…"

In the middle of his sentence, the head guard slapped him across the face with no warning. "Ow…" Jack whimpered, eyes tearing up. "What was that for?"

"One more disrespectful word outta you, and we might just execute you on the spot!" For the rest of the journey, he resolved to keep his mouth shut, although it was very hard for him. It was better to be quiet and get out alive.

At last, something began to appear in the distance. A large, dark castle jutted up into the sky, its jagged, pointed towers scraping the heavens. The sky above swirled with different brownish tones. It looked like it would start pouring any second. With the world in this perpetual stormy state, it created a gloomy, dull atmosphere.

"Cool…" Jack commented, his resolution of silence not lasting very long. "Where is that?"

"The Hill, you idiot," the head guard replied, quite obviously ticked off. "Where else?"

_The Hill? Which hill? …I don't see any hill; the land is completely flat! _He almost began to laugh at their stupidity, but noticing the peeved looks on the dangerous imposter guards, decided against it. As they grew closer and closer to the castle, he noticed that there was actually a town in front of it, stretching for miles on end. From far away it looked so small, but it was really _huge_.

Jack shivered as he glanced up at the entrance to the town. He wanted to turn around right there and run for his life, but the army of guards pushed him through the town barrier. A swinging, battered wooden sign above read, in fading letters- Welcome to Hilltown. Two lanterns attached to the side of the posts illuminated the letters in an eerie glow.

The interior of the town perfectly matched the dreary sky hanging above. Everything seemed to be drenched in the same sepia monotony, from the wooden buildings, to the dirt roads, and the blank, ripped clothing of the mulling citizens. The people rushed about, mindlessly, probably not even needing to do these daily rounds, but performing them according to routine.

As the guards continued to chant, "Unauthorized use of a HeliPack, false claims, disrespectful action, resisting authority," these dull, blending people began to congregate around them, sticking their powdered noses down to get a look at this hideous criminal. Jack felt as if he were on display, for their entertainment. Yes, come look at the criminal boy in the weird black robe!

Closely observing these people, he realized that they also were copycats with the same white and black face paint as he had. Everyone in the entire town seemed to have the Jack face and white skin- from the old ladies to the newborn babies in the arms of their white-faced mothers. White-faced men shouted at his disgraceful person, while white-faced women threw frying pans, and white-faced teenagers began protesting behind them.

"Alright, break it up!" the guards yelled back at the mob. "Or we'll arrest you too, ya troublemakers!"

Jack took a deep breath, looking down the long, twisting alleyways of Hilltown. It would be a long time until they got to…wherever they were going. Exactly where were they taking him anyway? Well, one thing was for sure- wherever that was, that was where they would kill him! Struggling once again, the guards easily held him back, forcing an emphasis on the _resisting authority_ accusation. The white-faced crowd looked after them as they trooped out of the gates of Hilltown to the base of the gigantic, ragged castle.

"Whoa…" Jack commented again. "That castle is so…big! Who lives there? …Are you going to kill me there?"

Finally, the head guard, unable to stand his constant yammering, slapped a strip of duct tape over his mouth.

"Mmmmey!" Jack yelled through the tape, struggling in the guards' arms as they held him just above the ground. He swung his legs back and forth, since they had also tied those up when they had captured him.

"Quiet. If you just kept that mouth shut, you'd be in a lot less trouble, you know. We'd only have to try you for unauthorized use of a HeliPack…and you probably could've gotten off with lifetime servitude…but _no_… That's the problem with most generators…"

Jack swung his legs more forcefully, hoping that if he swung hard enough he could try to kick the guards down. Why did they always call him a "generator", he found himself wondering. It was as if he were a battery or a power plant instead of a person. His resistance proved futile, as the guard to the left grabbed his feet when he tried to kick him in the butt.

The head guard pushed a button on the wall next to the twisted, metal gate in front of the castle, connecting to some entity inside. "Hello. This is General 3 reporting. We've captured a wayward generator accused of unauthorized use of a HeliPack, false claims, disrespectful behavior, and resisting authority."

"Or so I've heard," a garbled, computerized voice answered from the other side. "Well, what are you waiting for? Bring him up."

The guard seemed shocked and pulled a little away from the speaker. "Why, my Master, surely you couldn't be bothered with such…"

"Bring him up," the voice insisted. "And never again question my word. Are we clear on that?"

"Yes, yes, of course, my Master," the humble guard replied. "We'll bring him up right away." The connection screeched out of existence, and the surly guard shoved Jack through the iron gates as they opened automatically. "You're really lucky, punk," he growled. "Meeting Him without so much as a trial… Consider yourself honored, arrogant jerk, though I have no idea why he's choosing to do this for a criminal like you…"

Jack wanted to ask who "he" was, but the duct tape over his mouth prevented him from saying anything at all. He could've sworn he heard crows cawing as the twisted metal gates came to a stop. The giant black castle reminded him of a lot of castles of evil wizards or sorceresses he'd seen in fiction. That was it! Jack suddenly realized. In this world, Wuya had risen again, taking over this "Hilltown" place, and making it into a city for her slaves, that all looked like him. Jack frowned as he realized this. Well, that sure depicted how she thought of him.

At last, they entered through the large, intimidating entrance, past the glaring gargoyle statues, perched watchfully above the doorway. The interior was surprisingly bright, lit by overhanging chandeliers, lamps set on various tables, and the standard flaming torch or two.

Jack shivered again, glancing around this enormous central room. The marble floor flying by below his feet was decorated with all kinds of curving designs. At the epicenter of these merging designs was a giant purple spiral, right below the twenty-foot ceiling, and the tallest tower in the entire castle. _Yup, _Jack decided right then and there. _Definitely Wuya._

A huge clock, larger than even the tall guards around him, sat mounted on the wall where the ceiling curved downwards. It was behind a twisting, web-like metal frame, ticking away towards a red section between 1 and 6. It was 9 o' clock, PM at the moment.

"This way," the head guard directed his troops, turning to a winding staircase, barred off by an infrared scanning beam. The guard leader stepped into the beam and waited for it to beep and show an "Accepted" sign above the entrance to the stairway. "Okay, men," he motioned for the other guards to drag Jack up behind him. They also passed through the beam and waited for the "Accepted" sign.

Jack produced various, muffled cries as his legs thumped against the stairs. The guards were literally dragging him up the winding staircase. As if being condemned to death weren't bad enough, they had to batter him as much as possible before his execution, didn't they? He tried desperately to slip further downwards, hoping to be flung out of their grasps, but, as he should have learned by now, the guards had incredibly strong grip.

At last, the leader emerged from the head of the staircase, into an even larger and grander room than the one on ground level. An ornately carved ceiling decorated with different, breathtaking paintings spread above them. Lush, red carpeting rolled down under their feet. Marble pillars on the side almost seemed to point to the golden dais on which an intricate golden throne stood. There were people there, a small group, and someone sitting on the throne, but Jack was so far away, he couldn't get a good look at any of them.

Before he could squint to get a better understanding of their appearances, the guards finally released him, shoving him to the carpeted floor. Jack was shoved so far into the floor he felt his lips press against the duct tape, touching the ground. _Ugh, what are they trying to do? Make me kiss the floor? _Glancing back, he also noticed the guards bending into hunched-over positions, kissing the floor too. Jack almost laughed at this ridiculous ritual, but the tape over his mouth reminded him to keep quiet.

"We've brought the prisoner, just as you asked, Great Master," the head guard announced, lifting his face a tiny bit from the carpet.

"Excellent," a deep, cold voice floated from the other side of the room. "General 3, you have done very well. Untie him."

Surprised and hopeful, Jack looked up from the carpet to the voice that was willing to spare him. An elbow slammed into the back of his skull, forcing his head back to the floor.

"I don't mean to question your judgment, Great Master, but are you sure about this? He has committed serious offenses against this very planet and your own persona…"

"He is harmless," the chilling voice declared. "_Untie him_, then leave my sight. I have a few words for your little friend."

The general grumbled, but removed the handcuffs from around Jack's wrists, and the rope from around his ankles. Then, he and the rest of the guard crew turned and mindlessly trooped down the winding steps.

Jack, filled with relief and gratitude, stood up again and ripped the duct tape from his lips. "Oh, thank you, mister! I thought they were going to execute me for all kinds of crazy crimes that I didn't even commit. You saved my life!" He began to run down the red carpet towards his savior on the other end, but was soon stopped dead in his tracks by the unknown person's next statement.

"Oh, don't thank me just yet…"

Jack stared up to the golden throne, a sheer purple sheet covering its occupant. He squinted and tried to peer through the sheet, but unfortunately, his X-ray vision didn't seem to be working today. "If…you don't mind me asking…who are you?" A cold silence echoed around him.

"Oh…" the same wavering, hardened voice replied. "You know who I am, Jack Spicer."

His red, thickly outlined eyes widened. "You…know my name?"

"Of course I do," the man replied with a chuckle bubbling up in his throat. "You go around screaming your name to the world and then expect everyone not to know it? You'll realize things like this, in time…"

Jack slowly turned away from the mysterious, logical, cloaked figure and looked to the figures at the base of the dais. There were four of them, ranging greatly in height, all staring up in reverence at the honorable master. The strange thing was, they all looked sort of familiar…

"Oh," the voice continued to explain. "Don't mind those bodies. My jesters were in the middle of a performance when you decided to poke your sorry head back into my world."

Jack tried to make sense out of this statement, but it wasn't working. All of the reasoning he put into dissecting and rearranging the sentence was completely irrelevant when the "jesters" turned around. …They were the Xiaolin Warriors!!! They looked much older, of course, Clay had grown a beard and long hair, Raimundo looked like an old homeless man, Kimiko had grown and amazingly remained skinny and elegant, and Omi's head had even grown, so that he resembled Master Dashi. The thing that truly shocked him was that each and every one displayed the standard black-and-white Jack mask, and their eyes…were so…blank. It was almost as if they were looking straight through him. They were dead…zombies. At least that was how it appeared. "What…? How…? Who…?" Jack stuttered, uneasily.

"Shocked? Amazed?" the voice from the veiled throne spoke up, icing his already chilled body. "You shouldn't be. Want to know why?"

"Wh…What did you do to them?" Jack slowly asked. "Are they even alive? …Kimiko?" Desperately, he tried to speak to the lifeless Japanese girl in front of him. She remained as lifeless as always, her dull blue eyes shooting straight through his body.

"Don't try to speak to the jesters," the cold, taunting voice at the head of the room continued. "They can't hear you. They can't hear anyone except me. They only obey me, and do everything I say. Definitely can't say the same for you."

"Stop that!" Jack shot back at him. "What have you done with Kimiko and those other guys?"

"Aww, what's the matter? You miss your little friends?" the man teased in a fake concerned voice. "You should be happy. In fact, you are."

"What do you mean by that?" Jack started to ask, but an answer wasn't necessary. He stood frozen in place, staring up at the person leering back down at him. It was impossible…how could…but then again, if this really was…

"To answer your question earlier, I am, of course, Ultimate Master Jack Spicer, ruler of the land, sea, and air. In short, I rule this planet. Welcome to my palace. I like to call it the Hill. So know, you'll know what to call it, won't you?"

Jack blinked in disbelief. This was…what he'd look like in the future? He was the one that had imprisoned the Xiaolin Warriors and turned them into zombie-like people? His future self looked so…different. He had the face paint, of course, which explained why everyone he'd seen so far had the same mask. He wore a completely different outfit, resembling that of an old king of England, in long robes, and laden with heavy jewelry. His long, velvet cape draped over the back of the golden throne. Special notches in the sides looked like they had been created specifically for that purpose. Every element of his clothing was very dark, if not black, navy blue, and covered with various symbols and tattoos. His red hair was slicked back under a chrome crown matching that of the guards' armor. The future version also had a mustache and a small Chinese-style goatee to make him look wise. Looking up into his future self, Jack quickly touched his own face and head to make sure everything was still the same. "Ugh…I don't even like beards…"

"Oh, believe me," his future self replied. "You'll start to like it. Or should I say, it'll _grow _on you."

"You know, your puns really stink."

"Careful, now," the "ultimate master" replied. "You just insulted yourself."

Jack looked down, and at last noticed something glimmering in his future self's hand. It was the Soul Scepter! No doubt about it, he'd recognize that heavy, dangerous gold rod with the clouded reddish orb at its tip anywhere. "Hey!" Jack yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the future man. "That's the Soul Scepter! You stole it from me! I won that fair and square against Omi…"

"…In a maze Xiaolin Showdown in Paris, France," Ultimate Master Jack finished. He snickered a bit to himself. "Come on, now. How can you steal something from _yourself_? Really, I've forgotten how utterly dim-witted I used to be!"

_Wow, I'm so frustrating! _Jack suddenly realized. _Well, at least I'm really frustrating in the future. So…this is the future, and I still have the Soul Scepter. So I'm guessing he has my Jet Bootsu as well…_ "But…" Jack literally asked himself. "How did you…er, how did I manage to take over the planet?"

"It's really very simple," future Jack answered. He lifted the shining Soul Scepter from his throne. "As soon as you unlock the true potential of this…then, you can easily take over the planet… By capturing the souls of people to create followers, threatening and murdering millions, and then capturing the worthless souls of these "Xiaolin Warriors" here, world domination is easily attainable."

"What?!" Jack cried, confusedly turning his head back to the blank faces of the older Xiaolin Jesters. "You have their souls? So…these are just their bodies."

"Exactly," the ultimate master affirmed. "Without souls, without emotions of their own, they have no free will. They are my slaves forever. Or at least until I die. So is everyone else on this planet, including the townspeople you no doubt encountered on your way here, and the guards that falsely accused you. Quite loyal, aren't they? See, I eventually realized the unimportance of emotion in the world. There is no need for fear, sadness, joy, or love. It took a very long time to figure it out…"

"But…but you…you might not realize it…but inside, you really like Kimiko! Secretly, you even want to marry her! How can you enslave her like this?" He shook with fear from such blatant exposure. Thank goodness that that future Kimiko in front of him couldn't hear what he was saying.

"Love is separate from marriage," the future Jack replied, abruptly standing up from his throne.

_Wow, I'm tall_, Jack thought, staring up at him. _I'm taller than that Clay guy. Well, maybe I used something to make myself look bigger…_

He slowly took a few steps down the dais to the ground level, which was actually very unusual, since he was the owner of the entire planet. Answering his past self's question in an action, he stepped right next to the zombie Kimiko and wrapped his arms possessively around her. "Love isn't necessary to get the girl you want…"

Jack's jaw dropped open in shock and disgust. Normally, if anything like this actually happened in normal life, Clay, Raimundo, and Omi would be right there to smack him upside the head and yell at him to get away from her, but in this brainwashed state, simply stared into the distance like human statues.

The ultimate master progressed to kissing the spiritless girl, who didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, she leaned her head backwards in compliance, though she had no expression of happiness, but none of pain either. Jack continued to gape, confused and even a little afraid at these actions.

"Okay, okay," the ultimate master at last concluded, pulling her a little bit away and back to her zombie friends. "Now, not in front of our guest…" He stepped a bit back up onto the dais and, noticing the stunned look on his past self's face, explained, just as haughtily as ever. "See, when you're the ruler of the planet, you can have anything…or anyone you want."

"Th…that's sick!" Jack suddenly objected. "And it's not even what you want! She doesn't really like you, she's just letting you do things to her because you took away her soul!"

"True, true," the ultimate master scoffed. "But, then again, that's the best thing you can get. She'd never love you."

Jack sighed, realizing that for once, he was telling the truth. "But, still…who takes away the souls of everyone on the planet just so that they can rule?"

"Oh, I didn't take away the souls of everyone," the future Jack corrected him. "Just the ones I wanted to keep around, to supply me with products, and these jesters. The rest I just killed."

Jack's body suddenly felt cold to the bone. This really couldn't be true…that he was a…murderer? "You're…you're…" he wanted to make some kind of accusation, but struggled to find the right word.

"Go on," the ultimate master prodded, a sinister smile twisting onto his face. "What am I?"

Jack closed his mouth, realizing the word that came after 'you're'. He was about to say 'you're evil!' but that was what he always prided himself on being.

"Yes," the future version said, as haughtily as his actions. "Think about it. You always say you're 'evil'. You're not evil. I'm evil. And if you really want to be evil, you'll have no problem doing whatever you can to rule the world…and this is the only way. These are all things you'll realize in time, so don't worry about it." The ultimate master snapped his fingers as he turned to return to his throne. "You are dismissed. Please show our little time-traveling guest to the guest rooms."

"No-wait!" Jack cried. He was about to ask his future self if he knew how he could get back to his own world, but never got the chance. A brainwashed Clay grabbed him from one side, while a brainwashed Rai grabbed him from the other, carting him back down the winding staircase. Full of frustration, confusion, and apprehension, he watched as the shiny golden, royal room disappeared in a misty fog as this new world- this world he had chosen truly became a reality around him.


	3. Like Family

I own nothing except this Soul Scepter thingy and Julie!

Finally, the debut of this story's featured original character- Grand Mistress Julienne! Her name was originally going to be Jill, but I thought I'd lay off on the Mother Goose references for now, and Julienne sounded fancier than Jillian, anyway. And if you're wondering what in the world she keeps sniffing, don't worry, it's only spices. This story is rated PG! I think I made Jack a little too nice in this chapter. It was probably because I couldn't wait to write about Julie… aw, well. Oh, and the dancing thing is weird, I know, but I always include some kind of dance in all of my fanfictions…it's a habit. I know I also imply in this chapter that Jack's pastiness is actually white face paint, but this was written before I had seen that the rest of him is white too. Maybe he soaks himself in white dye… I also say something about him having freckles underneath, because for some reason, I can easily picture him with freckles… Yeah…I'm weird. ;

Oh, and I forgot it before, but here's the recitation of the ages for this story-

Jack (and Rai, if he's in this story later): 14, (in the future, 44)

Kimiko: 13 (in the future, 43)

Omi: 10 (in the future, 40)

Clay: 15 (in the future, 45)

Katnappe (yes, she'll show up later): 15 (in the future, 45)

Meagan (so will she): 7 (in the future, 37)

Julie: nonexistent (in the future, 14)

Dojo: 1,500 (in the future, 1,530) ;)

…So many reviews! This is actually the most reviews I've ever gotten for only two chapters, so I want to thank everyone who reviewed! Please go easy on me for this chapter, I know it's got a lot of errors, but better stuff is coming, I promise.

---

Chapter 3: Like Family

_It's so dark… It's been a long time…too long. It's so cold… I want my blankie. I want my computer. I want my robot army. I just want my world back. The other one. Not this nightmare… I'm dreaming, that has to be it. Any minute now, Wuya will come screaming at me for falling asleep at the desk again…and I haven't really won a Shen-Gong-Wu. That part's a drag… This is a nightmare. Maybe if I complain that I just had a nightmare, she'll let me stay at the base… Nah, that never works… It's weird, I've never had a _bad _dream about me ruling the world before…_

_­_---

Suddenly, a pair of ice-cold hands clamped themselves over Jack's shoulders and tore him away from his internal fantasizing. "Room 566," a female voice droned in his ear.

"Occupied," a male voice drawled in response.

"Grand Mistress Julienne," a second male voice specified.

"No vacancies," a third male drawl, this one with a bit of an accent, said.

"Visitor!" the female computerized voice said, with an actual hint of enthusiasm. Those icicle fingers stabbed Jack's back with coldness, even through his trench coat. At the emotionless exclamation, they pushed against him, and with a panic rising in his chest, he realized that he was falling forwards without knowing how long it was to the bottom.

_I'm going to die!_ He thought in his panic. But he only got the chance to let out a slight squeal before he hit the cold, stone floor of a new room. Everything was dead silent, other than the slight tapping of eight uniformly covered feet marching back to their chambers.

_Where am I? _Jack wondered. _They said 'room 566'…that's where I must be. …Who's 'Grand Mistress Julienne'? Those lifeless Xiaolin showoffs are trying to play a trick on me, aren't they? _Convinced of this conclusion, Jack at last lifted his head from the floor to get a look at his new environment. It was very dark, just like the rest of the castle, but illuminated by several candles, placed strategically around the room.

"Well, this isn't so bad…" he decided, talking aloud to himself, now knowing that he was alone. "I wish it were a little brighter, though…"

At that moment, an unusual, strong, yet pleasant odor reached his nose and he glanced around to find its source. "Now what's that smell? It's like…tacos or something…weird."

As if in response, a light suddenly sparked on in a darkened corner of the room, revealing the source of the strange smell. A teenage girl was sitting on an ornate stool, holding an opened bottle of unidentifiable substance.

Startled, Jack jumped back from the area. There was another person in this room! Another person that had just heard him talking to himself! The girl turned her stark white painted face towards him and blinked a little, probably confused. _That's right. They said, 'occupied' and 'Grand Mistress Julienne'. Occupied by Grand Mistress Julienne! Why didn't I realize that before?! _"Oh…um…I didn't mean to bother you…you're Grand Mistress Julienne, aren't you?"

There was no response from the young lady; she simply corked the bottle in her hands and placed it back on its shelf behind her head. She was surprisingly pretty, with long, straight, shiny black hair, large reddish eyes, and a slim figure. She wore a long, tissue-like black chiffon dress with a purple dress underneath to match. The hem, along with the long, dangling sleeves, ended in petal shapes. Around her neck was a necklace with a dark bluish-purple pendant in the shape of a swirl. She stared, almost meekly, at Jack and clutched the pendant around her neck.

"Well…I really don't know what I'm doing in your room… I guess they couldn't find any other space for me…" Jack continued on, trying to get some positive reinforcement on her part. "So I guess I'm going to be your roommate until I can find a way out of this world…the name's Jack Spicer, by the way."

Grand Mistress Julienne stared in shock and amazement. Then, she abruptly turned and tried to cover her elated expression.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked, slowly approaching her. The last thing he wanted to do was harm this beautiful, delicate creature, and then get in trouble with the law again. Even though he wasn't sure of her actual status, he knew she had to be someone important in the castle with a title like Grand Mistress.

The girl at last made her first reply. Softly, in a low voice, she whispered, "No."

"What happened?" Jack asked, desperately searching for whatever it was that he did wrong. "Was it something I said?"

"…No," Grand Mistress Julienne said again. At last, she turned around again, pointing to the left.

Jack followed her finger to a bunk bed set up in the corner. From the rumpled look of the bottom bunk, that was where she always slept. He glanced at a nearby digital clock shining through the darkness near the entrance to the room. 11:30, PM. Time sure had flown…Well, it was getting late. Maybe she was trying to tell him that he should get to bed.

"Yeah…" he said, without even completely sure of her message. "You're right. I am really tired." With that, he climbed up to the top bunk and fluffed the pillow. Before he lied down for the night, he looked back over at the mysterious girl in the small area surrounded by canisters. "Well…hope you feel better. Maybe we can get along, and…be friends…or something. Grand Mistress Julienne is kind of a long name for a girl like you. Could I call you by a shorter name? Maybe…Julie? Would you like that?" Watching her face carefully, Jack thought he saw a bit of a smile appear on the delicate girl's face. "I'll take that as a yes. Good night, Julie."

Meanwhile, from her perch on the intricately woven stool, Julienne quickly checked for hidden cameras, and then broke into a full-fledged grin, reading her labeled jars and scribbling in her diary excitedly.

---

The dark, silent halls of the mansion spread for miles on end. It seemed like they would never end…like he would be lost forever in their cavernous depths if he dared venture into them. Thankfully, the door to the master bedroom was only on the other side of the hall.

It seemed to take a lot longer to get there than he had expected. Reaching up, his small hand at last grasped the smooth, cold surface of the doorknob. The shiny gold reflected a light on the other side of the hall. The gleaming metallic light seemed to comfort him somehow.

"Daddy?" A gigantic bed stood just behind the door, where his father was snoring, contentedly. "Daddy!" Reassured by the appearance of a familiar person, he scrambled up on top of the bed and shook the man in joyful recognition. "Daddy! Daddy! Get up!"

A pair of angry, flashing red eyes drove back at the happiness that had once warmed his heart. "Jack…" the familiar voice, made unfamiliar in its hardening replied. "What are you doing in my room?"

"I…I had a bad dream…" those visions were creeping back into existence again, and instinctively, he began to shiver, nudging closer to the familiar entity. "…I'm scared…"

The hard voice began again, but this time was the hardest of all. "Get. Out." Just those two words. That was all it took to make him feel and almost believe that he had just been punched in the face.

---

_Poke…poke. Poke, poke, poke! _"Okay! Okay, I'm getting up! You see me moving?! You know, I have my own evil duties to attend to, and…" Jack at last opened his eyes, and saw instead of a floating purple hag with swirling eyes, a pretty girl with long black hair and face paint matching his. Well, this certainly was an improvement.

Julienne continued to stare, absentmindedly at him. Then, she reached out and poked him again.

"What do you want?" Jack complained. "Can't you just tell me?"

Julienne stared, and at last lowered her head back down, stepping off the ladder leading to his second bunk. She retreated to her dark corner, marched around, lighted all the candles, and then sat down to contentedly sniff her jars of unidentifiable substances.

Jack sat up and looked himself over. "Oh darn, I fell asleep in my jacket again…but I didn't bring a change of clothes with me!" He smacked his own forehead. _That's right, stupid! You're still in that weird future world where you're a murderer and the Xiaolin Dragons are zombies…_ He carefully climbed down the ladder to ground level, gripping the sidebars tightly. _It had to be that dream_, he decided._ I usually only have dreams about my childhood like that when I'm at home_. Finally, he reached the slippery, dirty marble ground of Julienne's room.

Checking a mirror that was hanging on the side post of the lower bunk, he realized that his hair was a bit flattened and his face paint had been rubbed halfway off in the night. He groaned in frustration, realizing that he hadn't brought any hair gel or makeup with him either. This bothered Jack the most, since he never wanted anyone else to find out that underneath the pasty vampire powder and brick-red spikes, he was really a carrothead with freckles. "Oh…darnit…" he muttered to himself, desperately trying to spread whatever was left of his face paste over the hideous blemishes. "Hey…" he asked, stepping up in front of his mysterious roommate. "You wouldn't happen to have any…"

Getting a look at his face, Julienne let off a small squeak in alarm and smacked Jack in the face with a powderpuff full of white makeup.

"Well…thanks," he said, looking happily at his now white face in the mirror. "Now I just need some…"

Instantly, Julienne produced a stick of black face paint and swiped the two black lines under his eyes, and the curve on his left cheek.

"Aha!" Jack said, looking satisfactorily at his familiar face. "I got it! I know your secret, Julie. You're a mind reader!"

Julienne actually looked a little happy at this statement.

"Uhh…" Jack asked, looking slightly embarrassed as he turned around. "…Where's the bathroom?"

Julienne stood up from her little stool and pointed towards the door and then to the right, and then the right again.

"So…down the hall on the right…and…first door on the right?" She nodded. "Alright. Thanks."

A minute later, Jack was trudging down the dank, shadowed halls of the castle. It was so dark, on both the inside and the outside, that he had no idea what time it was. That didn't really matter, anyway. The time in this dimension, or future, or whatever, could be totally different than the time back in China. The atmosphere of these gloomy halls much reminded him of those long, shadowed halls in his own house that he used to be so afraid of…and that he was still so afraid of. At last, he spied a wooden door on the right.

_Finally! This must be the bathroom… Funny, it doesn't look like a bathroom…_ Jack at last stepped up and opened the door a little bit, peeking in just to make sure.

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream erupted from around the corner. He couldn't really see what was going on, but he thought he noticed the shadow of a man in the distance, reeling back a long, whip-like object…

Jack quickly closed the door as the same scream broke out again. Slowly, he backed away from the door. "…I don't think that was the right door," he managed to say, finally turning to continue down the hall. Thankfully, the next door he tried was the right one.

---

Getting lost can be an adventure in itself. For the entire day, Jack had been lost in the Hill Castle, wandering around the endless corridors, one identical to the other. Occasionally, he passed neurotic, frantic-looking servants rushing through the castle halls with packets of papers or trays of food, but they just stared at him like he was a madman when he asked for directions. After six hours wandering through these same exact hallways, he was beginning to get frustrated.

"I hate this world!" Jack suddenly cried, kicking the wall with his black rubber boots. "It's so boring! Come on, there's got to be an evil laboratory around here… How about a video arcade? An ice cream parlor? …table tennis? I'm getting desperate here!" So far all he had seen were offices, kitchens, quarters, and a bunch of creepy dungeon chambers. "This can't be true," he decided for himself. "Because if this were really my castle, it would be full of robots, video games, ice cream…and you'd have to get around by those rodent tube things…and the prisoners would be in a gigantic ball pit, suffocating under the plastic…" Jack suddenly stopped his fantasizing again, as he caught a snatch of a conversation between two of the castle's servants.

"Yeah, I know what you mean…" the first one was replying, checking himself in a nearby mirror. "There's only one thing in the world that scares me more…"

Normally, Jack wouldn't give a Fig Newton about what that person was afraid of, but after having that same "fear" dream from his past as he always had, he decided to stop and listen to the guy's fears. After all, he had to differ from his insensitive father, right?

"…the dragon."

"The dragon?" the second servant asked. "You mean that one they've got locked up at the electric plant in Hilltown? Yeah, I'm afraid of him too…"

"If he got loose, he'd probably destroy the whole planet!"

"Nah, I don't think so. The Master would capture him and then make it look like he'd slain him."

"Shh! Do you know what that kind of talk could do to you? You never know if they're listening in on you…"

As the servants broke back into the everyday jibber-jabber, Jack walked away back down the familiar old hallway. "Dragon? They can't mean _that_ dragon, right? Well, maybe it's that other dragon…" he shook his head and continued concentrating on the path in front of him. "Oh, well, I shouldn't worry about that…right now, I need to find something to do!"

At that exact moment, a resounding gong echoed throughout the castle.

"What the…?" Jack looked frantically around him. Droves of people were rushing out of their dormitories, hidden under black cloaks. They surrounded him at every turn, swarming like a bunch of black bees. With nothing else to do, he decided to follow the crowd for once and find out where they were going. Stone columns, walls, and various paintings flashed by his face as he rushed after the cloaked figures.

They were filling up the central room, just in front of the entrance where the guards had first dragged him in. The people naturally fell into formation, circling around the spiral in the center of the room, some branching off and forming their own little spirals. The crooked big hand on the colossal clock above had just entered the red zone.

"Hmm," Jack said to himself. "Well, I asked for something interesting… Guess I'll stick around and see what these crazy guys are going to do…"

Suddenly, every single one of them fell to the ground, kissing it in reverence, while still standing in formation. Looking up, Jack finally noticed the source of their humility. The Ultimate Master had appeared again, standing on a balcony sticking out of the side of the wall. Why hadn't he noticed that balcony there before?

If it weren't shock enough just to see the older, bearded version of himself step up on that balcony, the real shock came in the appearance of the figure sitting, gently on a stool next to him.

"…_Julienne_?!" Indeed, the quiet, willful teenage girl was up on the balcony beside the Ultimate Master Jack Spicer. She didn't look too pleased with this duty, but then again, she never really looked pleased with anything. That was right, she was "Grand Mistress Julienne". That couldn't mean…

As if on cue, all of the cloaked people popped back up into position. Mechanically, they all began to move at the same time. The group of people, in their long flowing robes, more resembled monks than the Xiaolin Warriors ever could. They shuffled down the line, hands in their sleeves, chanting in unison. With their identical robes and white painted faces the only things visible, it much resembled an army of clones.

"Whoa…" Jack whispered to himself. "It's like a cult or something… Cool!"

By the nature of their actions and constant bowing, it was easy to observe that they were performing some sort of worshipping ritual to the ultimate master. The dance continued on, as they walked in perfect sync, returning to their spots and starting the routine all over again.

Jack yawned and sat down on the cold marble floor, resting his back against an equally cold marble pillar. "How long are they gonna keep that up? I know I wouldn't be able to walk around and chant like that for an hour…" In fact, he couldn't imagine bowing and submitting like these Jack-monks were doing for even a minute. _What lowlifes…_he found himself thinking. _Guess they've got nothing better to be doing… Seeing as how this castle is so _boring!!!

The black human figures returned to their positions on the spiral design for the umpteenth time, and Jack, sick of their repetitive act, closed his eyes to think some more about this.

_So I rule the planet…and I've got this huge castle, and servants, and these worshipping Jack-monks… _At last, a slightly evil smile appeared on his pale face as he turned over to take another nap. _…Eat my dust, Xiaolin scum… _Everything was starting to feel normal again, and perhaps if he just concentrated on the present, and stopped trying to analyze this warped dimension, everything would eventually return to the way it was…

"My most humble servants!" The icy blast of Jack's own futuristic voice immediately snapped him out of his quiet concentration mode. Oh well, that wasn't going to work, was it?

Ultimate Master Jack had risen from his other throne on the balcony to address the crowd below. "I thank you for another wonderful Respect Hour. My daughter and I have been most delighted…"

As soon as Jack recognized those two significant words 'my daughter', he jumped back up to his feet. "So Julienne is his daughter…which would make her the princess! And…if this is the future…" Jack suddenly felt sick and lightheaded, and he knew it couldn't be motion sickness this time. "_My_…_daughter_?! But…I can't have a daughter! I never even wanted kids! I'm only fourteen! …_who's the mama_?!?!" By now, he was nearly tearing his hair out just thinking about it.

While Jack was freaking out, he missed the second half of the future self's speech, and just managed to catch the last couple of words. "…resume your regularly scheduled session."

The obedient Jack-monks rose from their stooped positions and once again began to promenade around the central chamber. The Ultimate Master had disappeared from the balcony, however, along with Julienne.

Jack promptly resumed his panic. "My roommate is my daughter! My roommate is my daughter! OhmyGod!!! My roommate is my daughter!!!" If he hadn't reached out and rested his hand against the cool, soothing pillar, he probably would have fainted at that moment. Unfortunately, since Jack made such a big scene out of realizing that Julienne was his future daughter, it was impossible for him not to be noticed.

"Hey…" the gruff voice of one of the palace guards spoke out, at last noticing the flailing arms and panicked gestures of his future master, "There's someone over there behind that pillar." The palace guards were different from the guards that had originally arrested Jack, these ones wearing special silver armor and no swirl shoulder pads.

"Aw, probably just another rowdy resident getting too close to the respect area…" his partner replied in a bored tone. "C'mon, let's go take care of the riffraff…"

"OhmyGod!" Jack cried again, still not believing what had just been confirmed in front of his own eyes. "What am I going to say to her?! I have to get out of this place… That's not right; you're not supposed to know what your child's going to look like before you even consider having a child… If she found out I didn't want to have kids, then she'd think I hate her…but, I really don't. She's really gorgeous… If she weren't my daughter, I would…"

"Excuse me, young man…" Jack squealed again as three gigantic armored palace guards suddenly popped out of nowhere. "Just what are you doing out of your chambers?"

"Uh…" he stuttered in their intimidating presence. "I came to see the show! Or…the performance…or…the worshipping ritual?"

The third guard promptly punched him across the face as if he were performing some routine task. These guards, like all other workers in the palace, had no fire in their actions at all. The second guard grabbed him to prevent him from escaping. "Don't you have some job you should be doing?" the first guard asked.

"Uh…no…"Jack replied, now dangling in the grip of the second guard. "I was just bored and happened to wander over here. I don't have a job. I'm too young to get a job, anyway. I'm only fourteen…"

The third guard was just about to punch him again, when that familiar icy, demanding voice broke out from the distance. "Unhand him!"

The second guard immediately released Jack, and he fell to the marble floor again.

The Ultimate Master appeared again, his long royal purple cape fluttering in his hands. Julienne followed closely behind, expressionless as always.

"Master!" the guards cried in astonishment, dropping to the ground and kissing it, according to custom.

"That's quite enough for now," the future Jack told them. "Now, listen to me. This boy is a special guest. He is permitted to go wherever in this castle he chooses. Make sure he is not wrongly convicted again. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, yes, Master!" the guards replied in unison. "We'll spread the word around!" "Of course!" "Never again!" Then, they all hurried off back to their secret little guards' chambers.

"Wow…fank you…" Jack muttered, rubbing his swollen jawbone and sitting up on the floor. "I…mwean…fank _me_."

The Ultimate Master placed his hands squarely on his fancily dressed hips. He scowled down at his former self, but also displayed a strange kind of determination in his red eyes. "You know…I've been thinking about this…and I think I realize your reason for coming here."

"Oh, reawey?" Jack asked, sitting up a little straighter. "Begause I doan shee it…"

"Just shut your trap and listen to me already!!!" future Jack snapped back. "Geez, I was so _annoying _as a teenager…"

Now Jack was the one scowling, but that was partly due to the fact that his stretched cheek skin wouldn't allow for anything else.

"Although I remember nothing of the sort, I believe that you may have come here to learn a _lesson_. Perhaps you have twisted space and time so that this world will someday come about in your own world. We are existing right now, so that we will exist in the future…of sorts… I've always had some trouble with the whole time travel concept…"

"I know what you mean…" Jack replied. He chuckled a bit at this statement. "Well, of course I know what I mean!"

"Get serious," future Jack said, plainly. "That should be step one of your enlightenment." Then, leaving his former self with that statement to mull over, Ultimate Master Jack jerked himself away and hurried back down the corridor towards his comfy, golden throne room.

Jack sat for a while longer in a state of utter perplexity. He tried to ignore the painful throbbing of his right jawbone, but only ended up focusing on it more.

Slowly, Julienne, who had been hiding in her father's shadow all this time, gracefully stepped forward, bending down to tend to his injuries.

"J-Julie…" Jack's body froze as she touched her white powdered hand to his cheek. Even though he knew it was ridiculous, he almost felt…afraid of her. It just wasn't right. She was the same age as him, yet she was his daughter… Julienne remained as stony silent as always. Did she know that he was her father from the past? Jack wondered.

He felt a worse, pressing, throbbing feeling in his cheek, and tightened all the muscles in his face as a response. Julienne was holding an ice pack to the bruise, though no one knows where she pulled it out from. Jack tried to talk to her, but she just pressed her finger to her lips, calling for silence, until she felt he had healed enough.

When she at last removed the ice pack, he had a flood of things he wanted to say. He wanted to thank her, first of all, wanted to ask about the strange chanting rituals he'd seen, and wanted to ask if she knew who he really was, but all of the planning was blown out the window as soon as he opened his mouth.

"You're my daughter!" he cried, without even realizing it as first, and when he did, covered his mouth in surprise. How would she react to hearing the truth? Jack held his breath and stared up at her.

Julienne just blinked, seemingly unaffected by the statement. She held out her small, delicate hand, and Jack found it strange that a hand like that would be the one to help him up again.

---

"I'm bored." How many times had he said that today? Fifty? One hundred? Julienne paid no attention, of course, writing in some kind of notebook or diary with a quill-styled pen. She'd been in her little corner ever since they'd returned from the castle's main hall.

Jack sat on one of the bunk ladder's rungs, resting his chin in one hand, and if not for the glazed look of his eyes, would have looked to be deep in thought. Finally, he couldn't take the silence anymore, and decided to take his HeliPack off and maybe play with the propellers for a while. He unhooked the Heylin-themed fastener on his chest and slipped the pack off his back. Suddenly, Jack received a ray of hope as he noticed that he had stuffed a few of his belongings into the extra pouches under the propeller holes.

"Hmm…let's see," he talked to himself as he rummaged through the pockets. "A few batteries…some pens…house keys…a Game Boy…but no games…a CD…but no CD player… Hey, that's what I should do! I'll make a Game Boy that plays CDs! …And that comes alive and attacks people!" Jack's excitement quickly wore off as he realized that he didn't have the equipment or the space to do anything like that.

"Oh, well… Hey, a communicator thingy!!!" Perhaps hope was in sight after all! Now he could call his evil operatives and they could figure out how to bring him back from this nightmare of a future world. Jack eagerly pressed a button near the top. "Calling Wuya…" he said into the receiver at the bottom. "This is Jack Spicer." Both the screen and the speaker remained crackling with static. "Come in, Wuya!" he tried again. Nothing changed. "Come on, I know you don't have hands, but just…use my Dad's body or something!" More static.

Jack sighed and tried a different evil ally. "This is desperate, but…Katnappe! Katnappe, come in! It's Jack Spicer!" Even more painful, crackling static greeted him. He growled in aggravation and shoved the communicator back into the pocket on his HeliPack. Turning towards Julienne, still silently scrawling in her diary, he tried to involve her in a conversation. "I don't suppose you have any Game Boy games, CD players, magical portals, or…"

Just as Jack was about to add "robot parts" to that list, Julienne suddenly turned around in her stool, holding a small, flat device with speakers, covered in dust.

"What's that?" Jack asked, standing up and softly approaching her to get a better look at it. Surprisingly, it actually was a CD player! In this age, CD players weren't manufactured anymore, but Julienne had managed to find this old, unused one thrown in with her furniture. "Yes!" Jack cried, seizing it, boldly from her hands. "Now I can finally listen to some music! Gee…it doesn't look like you've ever even used this thing. Don't you like music?"

Juliene just blinked again, a slightly questioning look appearing on her face.

Jack set the compact CD player on the rocky ground and blew the dust off the top, then rubbed it a bit with his sleeves to eliminate the stubborn film. "Okay, we're all ready!" He hurried over to the HeliPack's pockets and pulled out the CD, its black-and-silver label design glittering in the candlelight.

Julienne interestingly watched him as he hurried back and forth from the CD player, to the pack, and to the CD player again. "There. It's got brand-new batteries now. It should work…" At last, he pressed the "Play" button on the right of the control panel, and a few seconds later a determined female voice cried out amongst the drumbeats and guitar wails. Jack smiled and crossed his arm satisfactorily.

Julienne's eyes widened a bit as she listened to the sound. She'd never heard such a wonderful, appropriate song in her life. It was as if someone were playing the soundtrack to her own life. Slowly, she chanced to stand up, and make her way over to where the mysterious, outdated machine was producing the gripping noise.

Jack cocked his head to look sideways at her, still smiling a strangely different smile. "You like it?" he asked. "They're one of my favorite bands. The lead singer is really gorgeous…kind of like you, actually. I mean…if you weren't my daughter…"

Julienne just ignored him for the moment, closing her eyes and swaying gently to the music. Pretty soon, Jack was caught up in the music too, and instinctively launched into a dance sequence that he had made up. Julienne stood back and observed him for a while, and when the next song came on, began to try to dance herself. She glided gracefully around the room to the tune. Jack glanced over and found her dancing with the exact same grace that she had shown in the center room. It actually wasn't that strange to see her dancing. She was a pretty good dancer for someone who'd never danced before.

Soon, the two of them began to blend their movements and before they even knew it, they were dancing together. It felt surprisingly comfortable. The small chamber became a totally different world with the music. It was like some kind of wonderland, just blending and mixing together into a sparkling, swirling, comfortable world within this cold nightmare. The dance seemed to last forever, and although Jack was beginning to feel tired, he wished it would never end. Julie grabbed onto Jack's hands, and the two swung each other gracefully around the room. At last, the final notes began to fade away, and the CD player made a beeping noise as it came to a stop.

"Aw, well," Jack said between gasps. "Looks like…that's the last song…"

Julie took a deep breath and gingerly sat back on her decorative stool. Her rosy cheeks were beginning to show through her white face paint. Her happiness and ecstasy wore off in an instant, and she returned to dabbing her face, worriedly.

Jack gulped the air around him as he glanced, discontentedly sideways at her. He had assumed that after an experience like that, the cold girl would spectacularly break into a conversation with him, but no such salvation came. Gradually the sparkling wonderland was melting back into the same, dull, drab dormitory. Jack sighed and got up to remove the CD from her old CD player. He shoved it back into the pocket on his HeliPack and sat back on the ladder rung where he had been before. It was almost like none of it had even happened.

But, it really had. He knew it had. It was too late, it had already been revealed. _Julie's not like everyone else here, _he realized. _She's not like those zombie guards. She has a personality. _At that moment, Julie stepped up to the bottom bunk, back to her normal, cold self.

"You know, you can talk to me," Jack told her. "I know you might feel awkward because I'm your father, but…"

Julie simply turned from his gaze and paraded around the room, extinguishing the glowing candles.

"Hey!" Jack cried, gripping himself fearfully as it grew darker and darker around him. "Can't you just leave one of them on…in case…well, in case one of us has to get up in the night?"

As Julie made her way back to the bunk, holding the last glowing candle, she glanced over and raised her eyebrow at him. She set the candle down on a tray nearby in compliance before slipping into her bunk and flipping the covers over herself. Did nobody wear pajamas in the future?

Jack mulled over this odd fact for a while longer before finally deciding to go to bed himself. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. As Jack placed his head on the puffy pillow of the top bunk, his mind returned to the events of the day. The screaming in that unknown room…the Jack cult worshippers… "my daughter and I…" …dancing with Julie… _She's not my daughter_, he made himself believe. _I'm not in the future. She's not my daughter. She's my sister. She's my best friend. Not my daughter. _And with that decision firmly made, he closed his eyes to forget everything and delve into the very different world of his own mind.


	4. Mysterious Power

The only things in this story I own are the Soul Scepter, Julie, and um…the Meltdown attack!

The meaning of "Meltdown" will be revealed later, as well as the Facists, who will be explained next chapter. Also, the school flashback is a little strange, but I thought it was a nice touch. In addition, I have errors, I know, because in this chapter it is said that Jack's father was pushing for him to release Wuya, and he knew about it beforehand. I know it's wrong now, but when I wrote this, all I knew about was that he released her from a puzzle box. I decided not to change it because it was original. Think of it as kind of an alternate universe… Yes, I made up a full name for him- John H. Spicer, which is why his father calls him "Johnny Boy" in this chapter.

Yay, more reviews! Oh, and don't worry, this isn't going to be some freaky Jack x his future daughter romance. …That _would _be creepy… Last chapter I wanted to give the impression that they quickly became good friends. And good friends is all they'll be.

---

Chapter 4: Mysterious Power

At last, he had discovered a loophole- a hidden exception to the scientific law…and it was known to be true that Julie _did_ talk! The only problem was, she only said one word.

That morning, Jack had been rigorously questioning the chilling silent girl, and actually had been getting some answers. "It's strange…" he reasoned, laying down his half-eaten breakfast wafer for the moment. "If you're the daughter of the Ultimate Master, that should make you like a princess… Why aren't you living in big, fancy chambers, with thousands of dresses, and servants, and jewelry…wouldn't you like that?"

"…No," Julie replied, her usually quiet, whispering voice much more firm today.

"That's it!" Jack cried, finally coming to his own conclusion about her condition. "He's not giving you what you really deserve as a princess! That's taking away your rights! I bet he's…er, _I'm _trying to keep you "under control" or something, aren't I?"

"No."

"Come on, don't you feel used? Restricted? Violated?"

"No."

"Can't you say anything else?" Jack suddenly snapped in frustration.

Julie paused for a moment. "……….No…"

Jack smacked himself on the forehead, but only ended up hurting his hand as it banged against his goggles. "Fine, fine," he at last compromised. "I won't ask you any more questions. I just wish you'd say _something_…other then 'no', that is." He relinquished all hope of hearing a sentence out of her and returned to attacking his plain, bland wafer.

In the morning, one of the palace workers traveled the corridors, handing out these "breakfast wafers" to everyone in the palace. It looked like the residents all had set mealtimes, along with set meals. Although the taste was terribly sickening, Jack had no choice in the matter and just forced himself to finish the wafer.

Julienne had already finished hers and was staring into the distance, flipping her bluish swirl necklace over in her fingers. Did she ever take that necklace off? Jack couldn't ever remember seeing her take it off, even when she went to bed last night. Shrugging indifferently, he got up from his seat and announced that he was going out again, though he had no idea where he was going. Julienne stood up with him.

"_Now _what?" he asked, placing his hands on his hips. After two days with this ice princess, he was getting a little sick of having to decipher her actions. "I'm just going out for a while. You don't have to do anything…" He turned and began to head for the door, and soon noticed that she was following him. "…You want to come with me?"

Julie stared absentmindedly at him, and finally nodded in response. Did she even _know _how to say yes?

"Well, okay," Jack assented, with a small, snickering smile. "Just don't make so much noise; it really gets on my nerves!" He chuckled a bit at his own sarcastic joke, but Julie's scowling response clearly said, "Wow, what an idiot." They then exited the familiar chambers, and she blew out the candle near the doorway as they left.

---

Four hours. Four long, long hours. _I would never want to live here, _Jack thought as he trudged through the gray, stone halls. _There's nothing to do in this castle… Julie seems to like eavesdropping on the servants, but then again, she's a girl… They can't be saying anything that interesting; they're just servants…_ He glanced over his shoulder, just to make sure the familiar, gothic princess was still following him.

She was a few paces behind, but seemed to be thinking deeply on something, occasionally looking at the ceiling. _Maybe she has something mentally wrong with her… _Jack finally realized. _The way she doesn't talk, and only expresses herself with strange motions.__ I think she can understand me, though…_

At last, he turned away from his mysterious partner and ducked his head further into his collar. _I'd kill for something exciting to happen…_ he thought, _maybe one of those showdown thingies. I wonder what happened to all the Shen-Gong-Wu anyway…I know I have the Soul Scepter and the Jet Bootsu, but who has all the others? Maybe I stored them somewhere… Wow, hundreds of ancient, magical items, all belonging to me! I bet the Ultimate Master has lots of fun playing around with them all… I mean, I bet I have fun… But, I'm not having fun. _"Augh!" Jack suddenly cried aloud, holding his head for dramatic effect. "Space-time oxymoron!!!"

Julie stopped staring at the ceiling to stare at Jack instead, a bland look on her face. During this whole expedition, he had been making various jokes, trying to get some kind of interesting reaction out of Julie. Once she had rolled her eyes, but that was about as responsive as she got.

Jack stopped to look back at her and sigh in defeat. "I give up. I just can't make you laugh, can I? …Whoa!" As he tried to walk further down the hall, he stepped on the ends of his coat and went flailing and screaming to the floor. At last, a wry smile appeared on the edges of Julie's mouth in amusement. "Correction," Jack added, looking disgustedly back up at her. "I can't make you laugh unless I fall on my face and make a fool of myself."

Julie's smile became more pronounced, and perhaps she would have broken into giggles, if not for the impending series of events. The lifeless forms of the older Raimundo and Clay came sprinting out of nowhere, holding a long, silky curtain between them. They burst past Julie, and nearly trampled Jack, on the floor.

"Hey!" he yelled after them. "What's your problem? Do you not see the future ruler of the planet on his butt in the middle of the hallway?!" _Wow, it sounds so great when I put it that way… 'future ruler of the planet'… _He stopped these thoughts immediately when he got a look at Julie's face.

She looked unusually worried, frantic…even terrified. Then, she suddenly bolted down the hallway after the Xiaolin Jesters.

"Wait, where are you going? Don't leave me!" Jack pleaded as she whizzed past. He instinctively scrambled to his feet and followed after her. She was pretty fast for a delicate young princess. The stone walls and decorations flew by as the four of them raced through the castle. _Where are we going?_ Jack wondered. _Oh well, at least I got what I wanted. This is exciting! _It was nice to feel the spark of excitement again, as he sprinted after his future daughter.

At last, the group burst into the central room of the palace, where the Jack-monks were once again gathered. Throwing a quick glance to the side, Jack noticed that they were performing a different sort of ritual, gathering at the very center of the spiral and chanting spells. This time, it seemed that they were actually managing to summon a kind of magical beam over the center of the room. If he weren't in such a rush to catch up with Julie and the Xiaolin Jesters, Jack would have very much liked to stay and watch.

They were heading straight for the winding staircase that he remembered the guards had dragged him up when he had first arrived. If he remembered correctly, it led up to the Ultimate Master's…um, _his _throne room.

Up ahead, Raimundo and Clay had passed through the scanning beam with the see-through curtain and were already about halfway up the stairs. Julie stopped right in front of the glaring red laser beam.

Jack forced himself to a halt behind her. "You're going up to the throne room?" he asked, confused again, but immediately fell silent when he got a look at his future daughter's face. It was contorted in anger, fear, and determination. Never before had she shown so much expression as she had then.

Instead of going through the red scanning beam, she whipped out a card and thrust it into a space in the frame of the detection device. It produced a horrible screeching noise, and then broke down completely, the red barrier blinking off. As soon as it was out of the way, Julie scrambled up the spiraling staircase, dragging her dress up so she wouldn't step on it.

Jack was about to follow, but then realized, he wasn't about to climb stairs when he had a helicopter rotor on his back. The raging princess paid no attention when her roommate came calmly floating up beside her. _What's the matter with her?_ He wondered. _Does she have a problem with those Xiaolin guys? Or did she hear what I was saying at breakfast and is storming up to demand her royal rights? Maybe she just hates curtains… _Jack chuckled a bit when he thought about this, but abruptly stopped again when Julie reached the height of the stairs.

The young princess rushed forward towards the glittering golden throne where something seemed to be taking place. Jack lightly lowered himself to the soft red carpet, just behind her, and observed the scene with wide eyes. Then, finally, he heard an actual sentence from the teenage girl's mouth. "STOPPPPP!!!" Jack was frozen in place, dumbfounded. She knew words other than "no"!

His future, stately self rose from what appeared to be a golden platform, to glare, despicably down at his child. "Julienne Spicer!!!" he yelled, his voice lined with complete abhorrence. "Get back to your chambers this instant!" It was an order. An order from the ruler of the planet. Who would dare to resist an order like that?

Julienne's body trembled, as she mustered the power and courage to proceed. "…NOOOO!!!" she screamed, tears suddenly breaking from her eyes. "I won't…I won't let you hurt her!!!"

Her? Who was her? That was when Jack noticed the figure lying deadly still on the same golden platform that his future self had risen from. Its long, peasant-like gown and silky black hair could only identify it as one person…Kimiko! _Kimiko__ What's she doing on that platform? _The Clay and Raimundo zombies had been in the middle of hanging the rich lavender curtain around the area when Julie had burst in and interrupted them.

The future Jack growled and thrust his swirling Soul Scepter out in front of him. "This is _your_ fault you know, girlie, so don't even try to stop me. I always will get what I want! You have no value to me, do you understand?!"

Julie's body shook even more violently. In just one blink of an eye, he could capture her in that swirling little red ball forever…yet she had to try to resist! If she didn't, this would just go on forever!

Jack gaped at the scene before him. _She…has no value to me? Does that mean…I'm going to kill her?! I just don't understand…I don't want to kill her…_

A strange, reddish-orange glow was gathering densely around Julie's hunched-over body. Jack blinked, incredulously as something began fading into existence below her feet. A giant blue swirl, almost completely matching the one on the floor of the center chamber solidified, spiraling from the spot where Julie stood. She threw her arms out, diagonally, as a flaming reddish backdrop sprang up around her. A burning hunk of material also materialized at the center of her body. Then, finally, with the tears running down, and smudging her makeup, Julienne called out, with such driving force, "COMET BLAZE, MELTDOWN!!!"

The chunk of burning substance went hurling towards Ultimate Master Jack. The dictator dodged to the side, but the flames ignited his long, elaborate cape, and he was distracted for a few minutes, trying to stamp the fire out.

_What the…_ Jack thought, _…she__ attacked him? It almost looked like when those Xiaolin guys attack… But, what she said… "Comet blaze, meltdown"? Meltdown isn't an element of any sort…_

Then, finally, the truth came out. Jack flew up a little closer as Julie lowered her arms and rushed up the stairs to the base of the golden, glittering platform.

Ultimate Master Jack finally extinguished his flaming cape, but just stood back as his disgraceful daughter ruined everything. But it was already too late, anyway.

Julie kneeled next to the platform and rubbed her tears from her face, forming a powdered white streak across her long black sleeve. She then returned to the matter at hand, and grasped adult Kimiko's hands, worriedly. The woman didn't notice, of course, and continued to stare straight up at the ceiling, in a daze. A few fresh tears replaced the old ones on Julie's cheeks. "…Mom?" she whispered. "Mom, are you okay?!"

Jack froze again. He lost control of his HeliPack and went tumbling to the floor with a splat. _…MOM?!?!?! _His entire face turned red, even through the makeup. Yes, Julie was his daughter…but she was his and _Kimiko's_?! Now Jack felt like his facewas a flaming comet like the one this girl had just thrown at his future self. Now, he thought he'd never be able to view the teenage Xiaolin Dragon the same way. She wasn't just a girl he had a crush on anymore…she was his _future wife_!!!

Julie pressed herself against the platform. "It's okay…" she started to say to the blank Kimiko. "I know, it doesn't matter to you, but…I know that if you were really here, you wouldn't want any of this."

_What is she talking about?_ Jack wondered, at last starting to get over the fact. _Come to think of it…if I'm married to Kimiko, wouldn't that make her Ultimate Mistress or something? Yeah, she should be like the queen of the planet… But she's not, she's only one of the Xiaolin Jesters…_

"That's quite enough," Ultimate Master Jack cut in, stepping up on the dais stairs and tearing the curtain from Clay and Raimundo's hands. "You've done your damage. You know, I could have you reported to the Facists at this instant…" Julie jerked her head up from her mother's unaware body, a look of sheer terror crossing her white streaked face and rooting her body in place. "…But I'll spare you this once. I wouldn't want them barging in while my past self is here… But, the _next time _you try anything like that, I will show you no mercy. You are certainly not indispensable."

At last, Julie began to shakily lift herself from the platform, glaring back up at her father.

"Go," Ultimate Master Jack commanded, swiftly pointing to the entrance. "Now. You may take _her_ with you."

Julie bent down, to force the adult Kimiko into a standing position, and grabbed her wrists. "Let's go, Mom," she said, even though she knew she couldn't hear her. She carefully led Kimiko down the golden steps, and Jack nervously jumped to his feet again as they approached. "Let's go," Julie repeated, throwing a glance over to him.

Jack's heart began pounding. Finally…she'd said something to him other than "no"! He nervously, yet gratefully followed his future family back out of the throne room and down the spiraling steps.

When they had reached the ground level, the concentration of Jack-monks in the central chamber had broken up, the mysterious magical glow dispersed. Jack felt slightly disappointed, but walked a little bit faster next to his future daughter, his curiosity overcoming any bored or disappointed feelings.

"So…" he at last tried to speak with the teenage girl again. "What exactly was going on just then? See I was right…he was going to kill you or something…" Suddenly recalling everything that he'd gone through with his own father, Jack took a deep breath before adding, "that's no way to treat your child."

Julie looked over at him as she pulled Kimiko along behind her. "It's because I'm a girl," she explained. "He wants a son…without a son, the Spicer name can't continue into the next generation. I'm of no value to him…well…you. Which sounds weird when I say it, because you're not really the same person. You're nothing like him."

"Thanks," Jack replied. "I didn't want to be."

Julie smiled a little bit, and then turned her head back in front of him. The blank-minded adult Kimiko tripped along down the stone path.

_I was wrong_, Jack finally concluded, _this place _is _full of robots, _human _robots. _

Julie noticed him observing her absentminded mother, and took a deep breath to further explain the principles of her family. "You might be wondering why if she's my mother, why she isn't the ultimate mistress or anything… He made sure that these people were inferior to him and lets no one know that she is my mother. Surprisingly, no one's ever wondered who my mother is before, but then again, no one has any minds…" She shook her head disgustedly.

"So…what made you suddenly decide to talk to me?" Jack asked, looking suspiciously back over at her.

Julie's forehead creased a little in concern. "I wasn't sure if communicating with you would somehow screw up history or something like that… I don't completely understand time travel mechanics, but… I don't know how you got here…" At last, they had arrived at the entrance to her chambers. "Um…I've got to take her back to her own room," the young princess explained, and no further clarification was needed. "You just stay here, um…Dad? That's just weird…"

"Just call me Jack," Jack told her with a small smile.

"Yeah," Julie replied, returning his expression. "I thought it was really cool when you told me that…I always wondered what your name was."

"You never even knew my first name?"

"No…he never tells me anything." She took a deep breath again and turned away from the scene to head down the hall to deposit her mother. Jack stayed and watched as she grew smaller and smaller until she finally disappeared into the monochrome hallways.

"This is too weird," he said to himself. "It's just… I know it's possible, but…_this_?" He stepped back into the room for a moment, but immediately noticed that the candles were still extinguished, and stepped back out again.

---FLASHBACK

The hard, solid reality of the playground seemed to scratch at his soul. The boring old swing set was full of boring old children, laughing and chatting with each other. The boring old plastic slide was full of daredevil children trying to climb up the slippery slope backwards. …What was the point of it all? Why not just create a slide elevator, or an automatic swing pusher? Stupid inferior children, always having to do things the hard way. At least that was what he tried to tell himself.

The 8-year-old Jack Spicer sat alone under the protective shade of the nearby maple tree, hugging his knees and observing his peers as he always did. _I hate recess…it's so pointless. This is all pointless… _Jack laid his head down on top of his knees. Maybe he could catch a few Z's while he waited for recess to be over. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night because his father had taken the night light out of his room in another attempt to "toughen him up". Just as he was beginning to fall into a sleepy, limbo state, the all-too-familiar voices started up again, jerking him out of his peace.

"Yeah, he's so stuck up…never talks to anyone…"

"Oh, the crazy kid! The one that tried to build a weird teleport machine over the monkey bars! I still can't believe it! There's got to be something wrong with that kid…"

"I thought it would help…" Jack mumbled to himself in response.

"Yeah, the weird one with the red hair and freckles… Bob called him Pizza Head the other day! It was so funny!"

"I remember that! And when he ripped up that freaky elevator thing he made…" The group of gossiping students broke into laughter as they recalled the incidents.

Finally, Jack had had enough. He stood up underneath the tree. They were going to get it now! But…as he looked over at the realistic situation in front of him, his body began to shake. He sat back down again, and curled up where he was, those horrible voices echoing in his head. Unfortunately, standing up had attracted the attention of the nearby group, and they trooped over to continue the torment.

Jack sat very still and tried to pretend he was invisible, but as much as he tried, he couldn't drive away the fun-seeking children. He fought a difficult battle with his own throat, trying desperately not to cry, but he also couldn't stop one of the tears from escaping his left eyelid.

"Aw…" one of the boys at the head of the group taunted. "Lookit. The little baby is crying because we were talking about him."

"I'm…not…crying…" Jack insisted, trying to mask his wavering voice.

"Oh, _yeah_," the lead boy said, trying to sound smart. "Then what's that big wet spot on your spotty face?"

"I…I just…have something in my eye!"

"Yeah…" the boy in the lead continued. "A bad case of redeye." The other students broke into laughter at this statement. "Ooh, careful, we better get away from here!" he continued to the giggling group. "We might catch the Jack Disease and end up as freaky nerds for the rest of our lives!!!"

"L-Leave me alone…" Jack stuttered in his defense, but a fearful plea wasn't the best way to demand privacy.

"Yeah, yeah, alright," the boy at last agreed.

"We've got to get away from him anyway!" another kid added from inside the crowd.

"See you around, Spicy," the lead boy called as he turned to walk away. "Or, should I say, Spicy Pizza Head!" His chuckle-headed followers began to laugh again, on cue as they followed him back to the playground area.

Now that they were out of sight, Jack could relax and just let his wounded spirit do its thing. Just to be safe, he moved to the other side of the maple tree, and even when the teacher called everyone back in from recess, didn't move from his spot. He suddenly didn't feel like doing anything, even mathematics.

---

"Pauline Norman?" the third grade teacher called, looking over her attendance record.

"Here!" a small blonde girl replied.

"Tara Pickles?"

"Here."

"Bobby Santos?"

"Here."

"Amanda Sparkler?"

"Here."

"Jack Spicer?"

Dead silence filled the normally tumultuous classroom.

"Jack Spicer?" the teacher repeated his name again. "Has anyone seen Jack?"

The students were beginning to break into chatter again, shocked over the disappearance of the boy.

"Aw, Spicy's probably still crying under his little tree," the same boy named Bob that had led the group before called out.

Frantic and frazzled, the teacher didn't even have the time to reprimand him. She hurried to the next-door classroom, and got her friend to watch her class before running out the back to the playground.

Sure enough, just as the little brat had said, Jack was still huddled under the maple tree, sniffling and trying to rub the tears off his face with his sleeve. "Jack…" the teacher said, gently kneeling next to him. "You need to come back inside. We're all waiting for you…"

"I don't want to go," he croaked in reply. He knew the teacher was there, but didn't lift his head to look at her. He was sure hiding out here was breaking some kind of rule, and didn't feel like being lectured.

"Were they bothering you out here?" the teacher continued, trying to comfort him. She received her answer in a violent head nod. "Well, it's over now, you can come back inside. If they bother you again, you come tell me, okay?"

"I don't want to go!" Jack repeated, his voice a little stronger now. "Go away! Leave me alone! I don't need your help!" Now he was sure he'd broken every rule there was to break, yelling at a teacher like that, and promptly jumped to his feet and began running.

"Jack!" the teacher yelled after the rebellious young boy, getting to her feet. "Jack, get back here this instant! You're in serious trouble now!"

But he couldn't stop once he had begun. His small legs just continued to propel him forward, out the playground, and down the sidewalk. Perhaps if he kept going, he could reach his house and sneak inside.

The teacher watched the boy's small form with shock and terror. She'd never had a student just run off on her like this… "I…I've got to place a call to Mr. Spicer!" she decided, and rushed back into the building to do just that.

---

"So…" Mr. Spicer, unusually dressed in his formal suit, and wearing the familiar crest around his collar. "Acting up in school?" Strangely enough, he seemed almost excited about his son misbehaving that day at school. "No worries. I was quite the troublemaker when I was your age, too."

Jack tried to explain that he wasn't trying to make trouble, but never got the chance.

Mr. Spicer turned around in eagerness, thinking that maybe the power was starting to grow. "So, how about trying that box again, huh?"

Jack frowned, thinking about it. For several days, his father had locked him up in a room with a strange, stone box, telling him to open it. But no matter how hard he tried, he never could. "No, Dad," he replied, in a worried tone.

"Aw, c'mon," Mr. Spicer pleaded. "Just one more time… You could get it this time!" Jack just walked straight past him down the hall.

The man growled in aggravation. "Why you little…" What was the use of having a son with special powers if he couldn't release the ancient spirit and help the family rule the planet? Mr. Spicer clenched his fist and looked down the hall after him. Whatever he had to do, he'd make use of that boy…even if it meant taking a few drastic measures.

Meanwhile, Jack was washing his hands in the Spicers' gold-plated bathroom sink and thinking about what had just happened. Somehow, he's managed to run the two blocks from his school back to his large house. By that time, Mr. Spicer had already received the call from his teacher about his departure and was waiting, expectantly on the front balcony. Why was everyone always angry with him? It seemed like no one ever appreciated the work he put into trying to improve the school playground for the others, his intelligence in school, his courage to find his way home, or even his consent to stay out of everybody's way. It seemed like no one ever really cared about him.

Looking up from the sink, Jack stared into him own, worried face from a mirror just in front of him. _I hate looking like this…_he thought. _I look like such a loser… No wonder no one ever takes me seriously. If only I didn't have these stupid freckles…_

Suddenly, a brilliant idea flashed through his mind, and he flung open a small cabinet on the wall to the right of the sink. Sure enough, a large store of different makeup and beauty products sat at the bottom.

His mother had abandoned these when she had left. One day, Mrs. Spicer just walked out on the family, leaving a lot of her belongings behind. Mr. Spicer had sold most of them, but thankfully he hadn't managed to get into this cabinet yet.

Jack searched around the bottom, and at last found what he was looking for- face paint. The container, spread out like an artist's palette. Since they didn't have a peach color, he figured that since he was white, the closest color he could get was white. Jack took a bit of white face paint on his fingers and spread it over his freckles, under his eyes and a bit onto his cheeks. He looked like he was impersonating a football player.

_This won't do any good…_he thought, sadly. _But, wait! What if…_

Jack eagerly dipped into the white paint again as a new idea hit him. He closed his eyes and smeared it across his entire face, spreading it around with his fingers. He continued to apply the paint, until his entire face and neck were painted white. As Jack stared at himself in the mirror again, he thought it looked a little weird. Well…there were guys with white faces out there…like those punk rockers he'd seen on TV.

Remembering those strange, tough-looking men, he resolved to try to mimic them, and now dipped a special face paint pencil into the black section of the palette. Unsure of exactly what to do with it, he decided to put an extra layer of paint over his cursed freckles, and swiped black lines under his eyes. He decided to add a little line at the bottom of his left eye- the same one that seemed to have a problem with keeping its tears in. Jack returned to the mirror on the other side of the sink to admire his work. Well…it was pretty good.

Now if only he could do something to his boring, bright red hair… He stared down at the various hair products at the bottom of the cabinet. He had no idea what to do with these unknown devices, but in his frenzy of determination, just grabbed a bottle of hair gel, squeezed out half the bottle, spread it on his hair as he pulled it up, and used another half a bottle of hairspray on it. Now his hair was literally standing on end, straight upwards, like flames licking the sky.

"Cool…" Jack commented when he got a look at himself for the third time. He looked a lot tougher and intimidating, which then made him _feel _a lot tougher and intimidating. He scowled back at himself. "Just leave me alone, you stupid jerk!" he yelled at an imaginary Bob. He smiled in satisfaction after viewing the effect, and happily came back out of the bathroom, determined that tomorrow would be the first day of his new and better life.

Just as he turned the corner to head back to the parlor, Mr. Spicer placed a giant box into his hands, and he couldn't see over the cardboard. "Ugh…what's this for?!" he questioned in alarm.

"To pack your stuff in!" Mr. Spicer called, almost gleefully. "Guess what? We're moving, Johnny Boy!"

Jack stood, dumbstruck, in the middle of the room. The cardboard box slipped out of his arms and softly landed on the carpet below. "_Moving_?! To _where_?! How come you never told me?! …And don't call me Johnny Boy! My name is _Jack_!!!" Boy, this face paint was really a confidence boost. He was ready to take on his own father now! Maybe he could even make him decide to stay here!

"China!" Mr. Spicer answered cheerfully. "I decided you need time away from school and other people to focus your powers and open the box, so we're moving to the place where our great history originated! Now, hand me that suitcase, would you, Johnny Boy?"

Jack grumbled to himself, but picked up the little gold-buckled suitcase for his father. As Mr. Spicer received the package, he glanced over and shrieked at the sight. "What is _that_ you've got all over your face?!"

"It's face paint."

"Well, whatever. Just hurry up and get your stuff. We have to get on out of here by 6:00 to make the plane…"

Jack sighed and dragged his cardboard box down the left hallway to his bedroom. _Yup.__ No appreciation…_

---END OF FLASHBACK

Ah, another wonderful, fun-filled day of exploring the Hill Palace's intriguing interior…_not_. After another pointless stroll through the drab corridors of his future home, Jack found himself wandering back towards the chamber he and Julienne shared. _I should probably find something to make a giant robot out of… _he thought, aimlessly. _Then she and I could bust out of here and demand that he give her princess rights and give Kimiko her soul back… But there's nothing to build a robot out of. Just a bunch of stupid rocks…_

Before he could figure something out, he came to the same old wooden door outlined by dark bluish stone. Actually…it looked like every other door in the Hill Palace. The only reason Jack knew it was Julienne's was because of the painting of the Spicer crest mounted on the opposite wall. He opened the door again and stepped inside.

Would she be angry? He wondered. Instead of staying in the creepy, dark bedroom, he'd gone off on another castle trek. Surely, she had to be back from dropping off Kimiko by now.

The room was still terribly pitch black. Perhaps Julienne hadn't returned yet after all. Jack shivered and turned to exit yet again. _It's so dark…who knows what could be lurking around in here! _Then, suddenly, he stopped to think. _That's weird though. I'm evil. I should live and breathe darkness. Why am I so terrified of the darkness? _Slowly, he turned back around to peer into the endless black. _Alright, that's it. The darkness is my friend...the darkness is my friend… _Repeating this sentence over and over in his head, he ventured forth into the unknown depths. He was concentrating so hard on this phrase that he began to say it out loud. "The darkness is my friend…the darkness is my…what?"

At last, there was some kind of light, glowing from a ring of candles on the nightstand next to the bunk beds. The thing that surprised Jack was Julienne, standing in the center of the room, her back turned. As he listened closer to the soft sounds around him, he realized that she was crying. "Now what's the matter?" he asked, slightly annoyed with her constant crying. "You still upset about Kimiko?"

Julie heard him and shook her head in response, but didn't turn around. Her long black hair shifted back and forth. At last, she managed to get a breath and spoke, in a tearful voice. "I'm just…kind of…overwhelmed right now…"

Jack stepped closer to the hunched over girl and circled around to her front side. Julienne instinctively buried her face further into her hands. Obviously, she didn't want him to see her crying. _What's the big deal? _Jack wondered. _Girls cry all the time, they don't have to hide it._ He reached forward and gently turned her face towards him.

Julie shook in terror once again, staring up at the boy who would one day be the same tyrannical father she loathed. Her fearful face was streaked with tears, her makeup mask running off and revealing the pure skin underneath. Instantly, she yanked her face out of his hands and turned back around.

"What's your problem?" Jack asked, growing a bit aggravated again. He was getting sick of this constant silence. What in the world could she be so afraid of that she wouldn't say?

"The Facists…" Julie whispered in pure horror, holding back her tears.

"The Facists?" Jack asked, "Who are the Facists? _What_ are the Facists?" He thought he had heard that name somewhere before.

"You saw me…" she at last spoke up again. "…Without…makeup…"

"So?" Jack really couldn't see what the big deal was. Sure, he didn't want anyone to see him without makeup, but he wouldn't be _that_ horrified if someone did. "Actually, I don't think you really need the makeup…you have a pretty face…" At that, Jack spontaneously produced a swatch of cloth from his jacket pocket and began to wipe away his face makeup.

Julienne looked over and gasped in terror. "No! Jack, don't!" But it was too late.

At last, he had completely removed his white mask and finished his point. "…Unlike me."

Julienne blinked, astonished at his blatant actions. How could he have courage like that… Even through the avalanche of horrible thoughts, the strange fact struck her, and a smile crept its way onto her face. "…You have _freckles_?"

"Yeah. They're hideous. I hate having freckles…"

"Oh, I didn't mean it that way. I was just surprised. Imagining my heartless, suppressing father with freckles…" She giggled a little bit, and slowly, began to forget her fears. It wouldn't be long before they showed up, especially with two violations like this, but still, it was nice to be relieved for the moment. "Actually, I think they're very cute. How can you say they're hideous?"

"That's exactly it. I don't want to look "cute", I want to look fierce and tough! …But I suppose the freckles more fit my personality, huh? I'm such a wimp…"

"Don't say that…" Julie replied. "You're very brave. In fact, you're being brave right now. Braver than me…"

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Jack told her. "But, hey, it's a compliment!"

At last, Julie's face broke into a small smile. Suddenly and unexpectedly, she wrapped her arms around his body. He moved a bit backward, not used to this kind of stuff, but let her stay there for a while, not wanting to break her happiness. "Yeah…" Julie slowly said, pressing against him. "We shouldn't have to keep in hiding forever…"

It flashed before Jack's eyes…his disgruntled childhood, being teased and shunned, slapping on this makeup in an effort to be accepted. _What am I doing? _He finally asked himself. _I'm doing exactly what they wanted me to do, hide all of my feelings and personality. Why did I listen to them for so long? I'm many miles…many _years _even, away from those people, and that world. There's no reason why I have to listen to them anymore. _"Yeah…there's no reason to keep hiding," he finally agreed, out loud. "I'm not going to hide anymore."

Julienne glanced over at him, her smile beaming. Then, just as soon as it had begun, their happy, together time came to an unfortunate end.

At that exact moment, a terrible crashing noise shattered their serenity. The wooden door went flying across the room as if it were only a twig.

"What the…?!" Jack cried, pulling his head up and glancing around, warily.

"No…" Julienne whispered, hiding her face once again. "This is all my fault. …I'm so sorry, Jack…"

"_What_?!" Jack exclaimed again. "Sorry for _what_?!"

Finally, a drove of tall, muscle men appeared in the doorway, instantly lighting the room with the flick of a finger. Jack watched closely, and saw something flat and pointed whirling through the air, lighting all the candles. "Hey!" he noticed, finally getting the answer to one of his many questions. "That's the fire Star Hanabi! Who threw that?!" _The only one who can do that is Kimiko…_he realized. _But it can't be her. She can't even talk in order to say "Star Hanabi, Fire". _

The man at the head of the army caught the rotating Shen-Gong-Wu in his fist as it came flying back at him. He, along with all of the other, identical men wore white-and-black robes, with swirling designs of those same colors on their armor. The giant shoulder protectors depicted a white background with a black streak, and another streak extending from it. It almost looked like…his former face paint markings.

_More guards?_Jack thought, _but they're not the palace guards that attacked me in the middle section…and they're not the world guards that captured me when I first arrived. _"So…who are you, and how come you have the Shen-Gong-Wu?"

"Oh…" Julienne whispered. "I forgot to tell you. When you became ruler, you also took the Xiaolin Dragons' powers, and gave them away, along with all the Shen-Gong-Wu, aside from the Soul Scepter…"

"But…why would I give them to _these _guys?" Jack asked, wrinkling his nose.

"They're your most powerful underlings," Julienne explained. "They're the Facists."


	5. The Facist Nightmare

Warning: extremely long chapter alert! Don't start reading this if you have an important date!!! Okay, I have to explain a little thing about me now…I always do something terrible to my favorite characters. Sometimes I make them sick, sometimes I hurt them very badly, and though it's very rare, sometimes I even kill them. It's the twisted way I show my love… But, don't worry, Jack's just going to get battered up a bit… Actually, he got off pretty easy from me in this fic. They'll be a lot more Shen-Gong-Wu in the story now. I just went Shen-Gong-Wu crazy, and decided to add the Silver Manta Ray and Shadow of Fear into it, because they're really cool! And here's where it gets PG-13 for disturbing images.

I'm sorry, I write super long chapters. That's just me. And if you thought _last _chapter was long… Anyway, I reiterate, this will NOT be a Jack/Julie! In fact, this is the last you'll see of Julie for a little while. And I really appreciate the reviews, cdfe88, DesiredStorm, Jadebell, TamerTerra, and everyone else! Keep them coming!

---

Chapter 5: The Facist Nightmare

Jack stood, frozen, at the center of the brightly lit chamber, trying uselessly to stare down the large men in the doorway. "The Facists? …What exactly does that mean? What are they going to do?"

"Alright, boys," the leader of the Facists yelled to his troop. "Let's break up this rebel party."

"Rebel party?" Jack asked. "What rebel party?"

The men glanced over at each other, and then suddenly burst into laughter. "What rebel party?" one guffawed. "That's the stupidest cover-up attempt I ever heard!" "It's not like we can't _tell_!" another one near the front cried between chuckles.

"Hey, shut up!" Jack yelled back, without even thinking. "I don't know what the heck you're talking about!"

"Oh, you _will_," the leader of the Facists replied, narrowing his already very narrow eyes.

"Tangle Web Comb!" a second Facist commanded, stepping out with the Shen-Gong-Wu. The rope-like fibers shot forward and wrapped themselves around Jack and Julie before they could even try to run away.

"Oh," Jack said, forcing his head up to look at the men. "So you think you're all that just because you have the Shen-Gong-Wu? Well, I'll tell ya what…"

"What, do you have a plan?" Julie slithered up beside him, bound tightly by the Tangle Web Comb's strands.

"Uh…no," Jack admitted. "I'm stalling for time. Maybe if we stall long enough, they'll just get bored and go away."

Julie frowned. "I highly doubt that."

The leader stepped closer and bent down to their level. "Ah, another successful day of _rebel-napping_…" A sinister grin appeared on his face as he stared at them. "We'll take the princess; the Master can decide what to do with her, but _you_…you're coming with us!"

Jack gulped nervously under his intimidating glare. "Um…can't I just stall for a little longer? Please?"

The Facist man promptly dragged him up by the collar, staring disgustedly into his face. Meanwhile, two or three other Facists rushed over to pull Julienne to her feet. She struggled in her ropes and tried to get into attack position, but it was useless. In this tight bind, it was impossible to get her arms out to form her burning comet. "Comet…Blaze…" Nothing was happening, so she just gave up, hung her head against her chest, and began to silently cry again.

"If you really must know what we're doing…" the head Facist continued, glaring at Jack. "We're taking the princess to the throne room, and we're taking _you_ to the Hilltown electric plant." Hilltown electric plant…? It was strange, but Jack thought he'd heard something like that before.

"Yeah…that's what they do!" Julie yelled over to him, giving up on her attempt at attacking. "You're never supposed to be seen without makeup on! If you are, then the Facists come, and you're either killed or forced into slavery as punishment!"

Jack instantly stopped struggling and just stared, incredulously at her. "Are you _serious_? That seems kinda…extreme." He turned back to the small group of white-and-black armored men, grinning suspiciously at him and began to struggle again. "Hey, I'll let you in on a little secret… I'm your future Master! You can't kill me! Yeah, I'm the Master from the past! If you kill me, it would be like you killed the Master! You'd all be assassinators!"

"Ha!" another Facist began to laugh again. "That's even stupider than 'what rebel party?'!"

"But it's true!" Jack yelled back at them. "You can ask Julie! You can even ask the Master himself! If I were you, I wouldn't even take the chance…"

"Nah, we're positive you can't be the Master," the head Facist replied, lifted him a little higher to get a better look at his face. "Our Master doesn't have _freckles_!" The group once again burst into laughter.

"Yes he does!" Jack objected. "He just doesn't want you to know! He must have them because _I _have them!"

Now, some of the grown men were rolling back and forth on the stone floor in laughter. "Don't worry about it," the leader said, holding back his chuckles. "We weren't planning on killing you anyway. But you certainly made my day with those outlandish claims! Ah…I haven't had a laugh like that in ages!"

Jack struggled in his bindings and tried to tell them not to laugh at him, but it didn't do any good. He glanced over to see the other set of Facists dragging Julie down the hall and out of sight. They were taking her to the Ultimate Master for him to decide her fate…but what would he decide?

_"But the next time you try anything like that, I will show you no mercy. You are certainly not indispensable…"_ Jack's eyes widened. He was going to kill her! "Let me go!!!" he yelled to the giant law-keepers. "I'm not going to let you kill Julie!" He pulled at the strings around him with all his might, but all his might wasn't very much might, and he soon fell to panting and hanging his head.

"Relax," the leader of the Facists told him. "If she dies, _we're _not the ones that killed her."

_…He's right, _Jack finally admitted to himself. _…_I _am. _As he sadly brewed this around in his head, the Facists trooped through the twisting corridors, out the equally twisted iron gates, and stopped just at the entrance.

"Silver Manta Ray!" a third Facist called, throwing the Shen-Gong-Wu into the air and watching it turn into a large ray-shaped vehicle. It seemed like each member of the Facist group had his own designated Shen-Gong-Wu. They dragged him aboard the flying black ship, and plopped him into a steel cage in the back. As if the Tangle Snares weren't enough.

"You know…" Jack called up to the front seat where the group of men was sitting. "If you don't let me out of here, then I'll never get back to the past, and then I'll never take over the planet, and you'll never get your jobs. So basically, if you don't let me free, _you're fired_!!!"

This time, the Facists completely ignored him; they didn't even acknowledge his presence. Finally, the same Facist as before stood up, calling "Tangle Web Comb!" Jack felt as the scratchy strands slapped themselves around his mouth, choking him and preventing him from speaking.

The other Facists gave their teammate a high five. "Yeah! Maybe _that'll _keep him quiet for a while."

The large manta ray whooshed through the sky outside. The villagers in Hilltown glanced up in fear as the vehicle appeared once again. They hadn't seen the Silver Manta in a while, and were beginning to regain their hope that perhaps they wouldn't have to see it again. Unfortunately, here it came again, slicing through the stormy brownish clouds with its shiny onyx wings.

"Someone from the castle…" one citizen commented, noticing the direction from which it came. "That's unusual."

"Where's it going?" a young woman holding a picket sign asked, fearfully. Just as the question entered the atmosphere, the gigantic vehicle began to change direction- it was headed for East Hilltown!

"Oh no…" a worried mother said in sympathy. "I feel sorry for whoever that is."

"Well, they said they were running on a shortage of workers…" one man behind a newsstand stated. "Just be glad it wasn't one of us."

As the terrifying black figure grew smaller and smaller in the dirty sky, the Hilltown villagers resumed their routines. This wasn't living…it was performing tasks…over and over again…like robots.

"Okay, we're almost there!" one Facist at the head of the Silver Manta called happily.

"_Mmrrrrrrrmmm_!" Jack shrieked, falling to the cold, metal plating for the third time.

"Geez, what does it take to shut this guy up?" a third Facist asked. "Normally when we take people, they might scream and cry for a while, but then they usually get really silent and cold…"

"It's alright. We'll only have to deal with him for a few minutes. Then he can bug the Driver Squadron. Or, should I say, he _better not_ bug the Driver Squadron."

_What's the Driver Squadron? Why do I care? If only I could get my hands free… Oh, well. They've probably already killed Julie…_

"Alright, don't get too close to the containment center," the Facist leader told his teammate. "You know what happened _last_ time…"

The chauffer nodded and intensely focused on the scene before him. "It's so hard to see with all these blasted cloudbursts… You think I could suggest an amendment to remove some of the clouds? It's dangerous for air travel!"

"Nah, I think that's his point exactly. We're the only ones who travel in the sky. It's discouraging to those who try to escape using some kind of flying device."

"Aaaaugh! Look out!" The Silver Manta Ray lunged to the side as the pilot swerved to avoid something. Jack crashed into the hard bars of his cage and gave off muffled cries of pain. "Today's not a very good day in the neighborhood, folks," the pilot said, looking back at his comrades.

"Never mind that!!!" the leader yelled. "Keep your eyes on the sky, you idiot!"

Thankfully, the rest of the flight went without incident. The warm rumbling of the vehicle felt good against Jack's back as it slowed to a stop at their destination. He longed to be back in his nice, safe laboratory, putting together some new battle vehicle. Instead, he was captive to a bunch of dim-witted men wearing armor fashioned out of his own face paint. _I never thought I'd be captive to a bunch of dim-witted men with armor fashioned after my face paint, _he thought. _I hate being like this…held back…powerless…I need power. I _crave _power! Well, I am an evil genius, after all…_

The Manta Ray settled just above the ground, and a long metal ramp extended from one side, providing an exit for the men. At last, the head man stood up and came to the back to the vehicle, removing the cage, and slicing the ropes from around Jack's body.

"Ha ha!" Jack laughed at him. "Bad move, Facey-guy!" He reached around his body, searching for the button that would activate his HeliPack. It wasn't there. He frantically felt around his back and chest. _Ah, darnit! I left my HeliPack in Julie's room!!! _

Noticing his hesitation, the leader quickly grabbed his hands, so tightly that he thought his wrists would snap in two. Now his hands were truly turning white in the grip of this unnaturally strong man.

His mind in a whirlwind of thoughts, Jack couldn't think of what exactly he needed to do, but he was sure of one thing- he had to get away from these guys. He gave the man a swift kick in the stomach. _Ha_, he thought, _he's got my hands, but he forgot that I also have feet to attack with!_

However, the Facist leader didn't seem injured at all. He smirked, amusedly. "Was that supposed to be kick?" he scoffed. "I didn't feel a thing."

Jack growled in aggravation, but grudgingly let the man lead him to the front and down the ramp of the Manta Ray, along with the other Facists. As soon as he stepped off the ramp, he knew he had entered another completely different world. It was very dusty, the sand whirling in the light breeze and stinging his eyes. Jack wished he could reach up and put his goggles on, but his bloodless hands were in the Facist leader's. Everything seemed so dry and rusty. Several white powdered people were trudging through the sand carrying heavy metal containers, or spinning the wheels of a giant turbine. They all wore the same cream-colored sheets over their skeleton-like bodies and struggled forward, like they would collapse at any second.

_Where…? _Jack wondered. _Why…? I don't get it… Why am I here? Where is "here"? Why does everyone look half-dead? _

"Ah! Welcome, welcome, fellow agents!" a gruff, yet relieved voice sang out from the distance. Another one of those Facist guys was running up, a large black feather sticking out of his helmet. "A new worker! Finally! We've been running short on generators ever since we had to dispose of the first group, and I'm afraid we'll have to do another weeding out again. Who is this fellow?"

"We don't know his name," the leader replied, "but he sure is a riot! When we found him with the princess, violating the Face Law, the first thing he answered was "What rebel party?" Then, he started to go on and on about how he believes he's the Master's past self, and that if we kill him, we'd kill the Master, and all this stuff…" he chuckled a little bit again. "You might want to keep him sane for a little while just for the comic relief!"

"My name's Jack…" he tried to say, but when he did, received a mouthful of sand for his efforts. _What does he mean by "keep me sane"?! Just what are they going to _do _to me?!_

"…Or maybe not," the feathered Facist replied, his voice growing cold again. "It all depends on his performance."

"Well, he's all yours now…" the other head Facist said, shoving Jack out in front and releasing him. At least he was able to feel the pain of the blood rushing back into his hands for a few seconds before the feathered Facist clinked a pair of handcuffs around his wrists, and then shackles around his ankles, allowing him to walk, but nothing more.

"What the…?! How _dare_ you…!!!"

The feathered Facist ignored Jack's yelling and complaining to speak to his palace operative. "So…you said 'when you found him with the princess…'"

"Yes," the palace Facist replied. "The princess has at last been captured for breaking the Face Law. It had been suspected for a long time, but this time, we finally caught her. I wonder how the Master will take this…"

"Not well," the feathered one answered. "But then again, he's been looking for a reason to get rid of that girl ever since the day she was born."

The long ramp shot out of the side of the manta ray for the Facists to climb back on. "Well, I'll see you around, Bob," the leader of the castle squad called to the feathered one.

"Yeah, hope to see you back here soon," the feathered one replied.

_Bob? _Jack thought in surprise. _This can't be the same Bob that… Nah, it's impossible. There are tons of Bobs in the world…_

At last, the shiny Shen-Gong-Wu vehicle lifted into the sky, floating away, and becoming a black dot in the distance.

"Come back…" Jack whimpered in a small, squeaky voice. "Don't go…don't leave me here…"

"Alright, you!" the feathered Facist spoke up, forcefully yanking him forward, and staring threateningly into his eyes. Jack squeaked again in alarm. "Your encampment begins now, so you better get used to it!"

"Encampment?!" Jack cried. "You mean…this is like a _prisoner camp_?!"

The feathered Facist wagged a finger at him, disapprovingly. "Here's a good opportunity. Rule number one in this place is- no talkback! If I ever catch you talking back to me or one of my other operatives, you're heading for a beating, you understand?"

Jack scowled back at him, but didn't say anything else.

"Good boy."

They traveled through the dusty pathways, as more emaciated, hunched-over people scurried about. _This is like a nightmare…_Jack thought as he looked around. _And my boots are getting all dusty! Oh, the horror!_

At last, the feathered Facist stopped in front of something that much resembled a jail cell, only set outside, and filled with hay. Actually, it looked more like a horse stable than a jail cell. "Here we are," he said, grinning sinisterly. "Welcome to your new home."

"You've got to be _kidding_ me!" Jack complained as the man shoved him into the room. "As future ruler of the planet, I demand that you show me some better accommoda…"

_SLAM!_

"Oh, come on!" Jack yelled back to him. "This is worse than a prison cell! How will you serve me supper? Where am I supposed to sleep?! What if I need to go pee?!"

The feathered Facist continued to ignore him, and became nothing but a bouncing black dot amidst the whirling sand.

Jack sighed and sank onto the scratchy hay ground. "This is ridiculous," he said to himself. "I'm locked up in a horse stable, 30 years into the future, and didn't even get to commit a crime… Well, at least not a _real_ crime. I should have robbed a bank… _Are _there any banks around here?"

"Well…" a feeble old voice softly spoke up from out of nowhere. "I didn't know they got a loudspeaker…"

"What? Who's there?" Jack whipped around, searching for the source of the voice. At last, he noticed an old man, wearing another one of those cream-colored robes, blinking his overly large red eyes at him.

"Oh…it was _you_," the man continued. "I thought they had gotten a loudspeaker."

"Get lost, grandpa," Jack replied, turning back around to rest his head against the bars. "Can't you see I'm wallowing in self-pity?" A moment of awkward silence passed.

"Well, Loudspeaker, you can't keep doing that forever. If they catch you spacing out on the job, they'll whip you."

"Stop calling me a loudspeaker! I'm a boy! An evil boy genius, in fact."

"If you're a genius, how come you're sitting in that jail cell with all us normal folk?"

"That's it!" Jack cried, suddenly getting up as a new idea struck him. "I'm not stuck in here! No, not at all! I'll just use my genius mind to find a way out! ……I can't think of anything…" As he sank back into the hay, he could almost _feel _the old man smirking behind his back.

_If I had the Changing Chopsticks, I could walk through the bars… If I had the Serpent's Tail, I could just go through them. If I had the Golden Tiger Claws, I could just teleport out of here. If I had the Third Arm Sash, I could use it to try to grab the keys. If I had the Glove of Jisaku, I could just make them fly to me… _Jack began making up all kinds of solutions to getting out of the cell, but none of it would do any good. _Let's face it, _he sadly admitted. _Without the Shen-Gong-Wu, I'm useless. Well…_he realized, _I could also just call my Jack-bots to come attack the guards, but I don't have any of them either. What's left now…? No Shen-Gong-Wu, no Jack-bots, no HeliPack…just…me. I'm useless without all my gadgets and items… I have no real power. _Jack relinquished his hope of escaping and laid his head on his knees as always.

"Get used to it, kid," the gruff voice of the old man told him. "The Facists…this atmosphere…they all tend to get into yer head the wrong way. But that's exactly what they're trying to do…make you truly believe that you're inferior to them. Then, they use you for labor, producing power for the Hill Castle, and when you're all worn out, can't work anymore, or suddenly catch a disease, they burn you for fuel."

Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing. "B-Be quiet," he shakily snapped, turning his head to glance at the man. "You're just trying to scare me."

"Oh, you'll be scared, all right. Well, if you don't believe me, that's your choice, Loudspeaker."

Jack turned back around, resolving to ignore this old crackpot for the rest of the time he was here…which turned out to be a very long time indeed. With nothing better to do, he just sat and stared at a black, digital watch on his wrist and literally watched two hours go by. He played with the piles of hay underneath him, making little straw houses, people, and clothing.

"This had to be the worst punishment ever," he grumbled to himself. "I mean, look at me! Reduced to playing with little straw dolls for entertainment!" Glancing down at his watch, he noticed that it was almost eight 'o clock, and they hadn't yet come to give him supper. "Hey…" Jack forced himself to ask the old geezer next to him. "When are they going to give us supper?"

"Supper?" the man asked, raising a thin, wispy white eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah…you know the _meal at nighttime_?! They have to be coming soon…c'mon, I'm starving!"

"Meal at nighttime? This is no meal at nighttime. The meals are at the day's start, and after your hours."

"_What_?!" Jack cried. "You've got to be kidding me! How can you live on only two meals a day?!"

The old man shrugged. "We manage."

"_Aaaaugh_!" Jack exclaimed in frustration. He flopped backwards into the hay, holding his rumbling stomach. "They've got to let me out of here sometime…" he tried to tell himself. It wasn't the pain of having to go to sleep on an empty stomach, but just the thought that he wouldn't be getting any supper for the rest of the time he was here, which, from the way things looked now, could be forever. "Ugh…" he mumbled, just imagining the future. "I don't feel good…"

"Please…" the old man spoke up again. "If you're going to upchuck, could you kindly do it in a different corner? I've already got three other cells around me, and since you're new…"

"I never said I was going to," Jack quickly replied. He was about to ask what the man meant about three other cells around him, but looking a little further, past the bars of the man's cage, he saw a few other cages on the other side of him. "…And what does being 'new' have to do with anything?"

"See, right now you're all fresh, clean, and wet…" the old man replied, with strange longing.

"Wet?!" Jack asked, scrunching up his face. "I'm not wet…" He quickly checked his clothes, though, just to make sure.

"No, no, what I mean is…I don't know how to put it…_squishy_…full of fluid…"

Jack raised an eyebrow, confused and slightly disgusted at his strange statement. Just what was that crazy old man trying to imply? He didn't really want to find out…

"…And what they do here is take all the fluid out of you…so you wind up dry and limp…like a rock…lifeless…"

Jack just flipped back over on his other side, away from the man. "Aw, whatever. I don't get whatever the heck you're saying… You make no sense, old man! I think that's what they meant by "keep me sane"…that this place will make me go insane, just like you!"

The old man just rolled his large, pouched eyes and looked away. "Such denial. I know, I know, I used to be just like you… In fact, you remind me of someone I used to know…but you'll see as time goes on…"

Jack buried his face in the scratchy, poking surface of the hay, and wished he'd go to sleep right then and there. Suddenly, glancing sideways at the abandoned straw village, an idea struck him. He instantly popped back up into sitting position and grabbed several long strips of hay. Perhaps…he could string them together…and make a long hay rope! With that, he could lasso all the freaky Facist guards and grab the keys! Jack snickered, eagerly to himself as he wove the dried pieces of grass together. _Hey…sometimes I amaze even myself…_

Finally, two hours later, it was completed! Jack stood up and decided to test his new weapon on the innocent straw-woman lying near her rapidly collapsing straw hut. _Alright…now how does that big doofus cowboy do it? Well…you kind of swing it around your head like this…_ It felt awkward, swirling a coil of straw rope around his head, but if this was what it took to escape, so be it. In this kind of desperate situation, Jack was willing to try anything. _And then…you just throw it, I guess…_ At that moment, he lobbed the coils of fake rope out towards the rag doll, and completely missed his mark, the loose rope falling, embedded in the already existing hay. _Hmm, this is going to be harder than I thought…_

---

Uncomfortably bright sunshine was creeping through every crack of the Facist cells, and unfortunately they were positioned just so that it shone directly into the eyes of every prisoner.

Jack groaned and brushed the bits of hay from his jacket as he slowly sat up. All last night he had spent desperately trying to successfully lasso _something_. It was useless. After giving up on the lasso invention, he resolved to try to dig his way out of the cell, but that plan hadn't gone very far when he realized that the bars of his cell went down into the earth. It was all useless… He knew he needed to get out of here, save Julie's life, if she was still alive, and find his way back to his own time and place. Long before, he had been glad to be away from Wuya's constant nagging, and now he longed just to hear her screeching voice again.

As soon as he was awake, the grinding noise of metal against metal heightened his hope. Maybe, finally, they were letting him out! Once again, his strengthened hopes were only shattered when a large arm that could only belong to one of the Facists, thrust in, grabbed his skinny wrist and yanked him from the cell.

"Now what?" Jack asked, glaring over at the armored man, painted perfectly white.

"Now what?" the man repeated, a wryly amused smile creeping onto his cheek. "_Now what_? Now, you're going to work!"

"Work?" Jack said, his nervous voice slightly cracking. "W-W-Work? Who said I had to work? I already told the palace guards, I don't _have_ a job! I'm only fourteen!"

"What does that matter?" the cold man replied. "That you're 'only' fourteen. You're not 'only' anything."

"But…isn't there some law or something that you can't officially get a job until you're sixteen…or fifteen?"

"I know of no such law."

"But…"

"No buts. You're going to work. That _is _the law. If you break the law, you must pay for your crime with your own labor. Now…no more petty words!"

Jack stumbled across the dusty ground as the forceful Facist man dragged him out to a large, outdoor public area, where droves of those ghastly, otherworldly people sat or stood around, squished together.

Jack once again attempted a kick attack at the Facist operative, but to no avail. The stolid man simply pushed him to the ground among the spidery humans, and scribbled something down on a notepad that he whipped out of nowhere. Jack looked up at the reeking, half-naked crowd around him and crossed his arms, despicably.

"Now _this _is torture," he decided. "Here I am- Jack Spicer, evil boy genius- sitting in the middle of this crowd of slaves… This is degrading!"

However, all of his disgust fled from his body as a group of Facist workers entered the area holding crates of oranges. _Food…_ Jack shoved his way to the head of the crowd, trying to get an orange, but just as he began to see the couple of Facist workers, several sharp elbows slammed into his chest, knocking the wind, and the motivation right out of him.

"Out of the way, _new kid_!" several harsh, raspy voices screeched down to him.

"You don't know what it's _like _yet!" another one of those ghostly human beings yelled over to him. This time, Jack froze and looked up at this creature. Normally, he would disregard the harsh stares and scowling glares of these people…but this one was roughly the same age he was.

The boy creature scampered like a frightened arachnid to the front of the crowd, grabbed an orange from the bin, and shoved it savagely into his mouth. Jack continued to follow the young skeleton with his eyes. He didn't even notice when one of the workers stepped up with the cardboard carton and handed him an orange.

"Hey!" the man snapped. "Kid! You want breakfast or not?"

Jack looked up at the round, juicy orange, snapped back into reality, and snatched it from the Facist's hands. "I hate oranges!" he happily cried as he bit into it.

Only a few minutes later, the same workers reappeared at the rusted double gates, sounding a wailing brass alarm, and the pitiful, deathly crowd around him began to migrate towards them, taking him with them.

"Hey, wait!" Jack yelled, trying to get across to the milling crowd. "Just where are you going, anyway? And _why_?" He was soon to learn. The various poking, pushing, and prodding of the hard, bony people against his body jostled him back and forth. When they finally parted and let the world in once again, he saw it- something that would define this new, transition world all over again. It was a large, circular clearing, with a giant, column-like cylinder in the very center. It was…a generator! Jack suddenly remembered the strange manner in which all the different people of the world, since Hilltown _was _the world, called him a "generator".

The crowd quickly scurried to what could only be their old, familiar positions. Jack glanced around awkwardly until another Facist forced him into position next to another of those spidery humans. He glanced around, looking for instructions, and received a few death glares from the Facist guards.

Then, the turbine suddenly began to move, propelled by the force of the hundreds of people pushing its wooden handles. _Oh…so _that's _what they expect me to do, _Jack realized. He crossed his arms, defiantly. _Well, they're not gonna get _me _to work some generator machine like a robot…no sir, Jack Spicer, evil boy genius, does not do his own minions' jobs. There's no way I'll…_

"Hey, you!" the dreadful, screeching voice of the unidentifiable creature shot at him. "You gonna do some _work_, or you just gonna stand there all day?"

"If 'e's not going to be of any use, why don't we just cook 'em?"

Jack slowly turned his head back to his partners, eyes wide and unblinking. When he noticed the drooling, murderous looks on those creature's face, quickly grabbed a hold of the brown wooden handle and leaned his body against it.

As he made a half a lap around the giant turbine, passing by the group of guards, he thought he saw them jot something down on their clipboards as well.

His co-workers glanced over at him, mouths wide, but then again, they did seem to have a bit of trouble controlling their saliva. "Why don't we just spare you the trouble…" the one nearest him spoke up. "Yeah…you'll thank us once you get out of this wretched world…"

"Shut up, ya spider monkeys," Jack coldly replied. "I don't know what you're talking about anyway." _It's a proven fact. All twisted, poor prisoners speak in riddles. _

"Spider monkeys, ha!" the other prisoner rasped. "More like rock monkeys."

Jack just scowled and resolved to try to ignore them for as long as possible.

---

Time had crawled along ever since he'd first taken a hold of that awful handle. Jack bit his tongue and pressed his forehead desperately against the burning material. He had no idea how much time had passed, but it had to be a few hours in the least. Forced labor was so…_painful_. Jack would have given anything to rip away from the horrific handle and return to the beautiful darkness of Julienne's chamber, but if he even attempted to release the wood, the Facist Driver Squadron would snap to attention and form another sharp whip burn on his back.

The drooling, reeking spider monkey people beside him looked about ready to collapse. In fact, as horrible as he felt, Jack looked to be the most stable of the entire turbine group.

As his limbs shook and he pressed his chin against the bar, he managed to glance around the immediate area, and notice the separate worker groups carrying in the last of a pile of metal canisters. A few minutes after they carefully set them back into formation next to an opening on the side of the concrete wall, and the same feathered Facist leader held up his hands to signal the end of the workday.

Jack, along with the various other exhausted captives, immediately let go of the handles. Finally, he was able to get a look at his surroundings again, noticed the setting sun above his head, and felt the cool breeze against his sweaty face. The whole day had been wasted spinning a turbine with these nightmarish creatures. And he used to think sitting around the Hill Castle all day was torture… Jack was too tired right now even to scowl at the disgust of it all. He fell to his knees and disregarded the strangely damp rock pressing against them.

"Get up," the familiar, gruff voice of one of the worker driver Facists commanded him. Jack opened his eyes to see the man's shiny black boots inches away from his nose.

"I…I…can't…" he slowly replied. "I'm too tired…"

"GET UP!" the Facist repeated, in a loud enough tone for the entire field to hear. "If _they _can do it, surely _you _can."

The rest of the prisoners were indeed rising from their slumped positions in the rock and lumbering back to their cells/stables. A few of them in the distance didn't get up at all, and a couple of other Facists were placing them in a large wooden wagon. _They're dead…_ Jack realized as he observed the horrific scene.

"Fine then," the gigantic Facist in front of him spoke up again. Jack jerked his head back to the front, recognizing his presence once again. "…Maybe this'll change your mind…" he continued, pulling a long whip out of a holster on his belt.

Jack scrambled to his feet. As much as this hurt him now, he knew it would hurt him even more if he didn't.

"Good boy," the man said, sarcastically, slipping his weapon back into his black-and-white armor. "Now, come with me…"

---

_I think I'm dying… No, I don't want to die yet! I wanted to rescue Julie, I wanted to do something important in this world, I wanted to be respected, I wanted to…be…happy… But I guess that'll never happen now… _It was no use to even attempt to suppress his tears, and just let them continue to voluntarily slip down his freckled cheeks. Everything felt sore or numb, and his back throbbed with a few fresh wounds.

Apparently, the Facists kept some sort of record of whenever he talked back to an official or refused to work, since they surely did get revenge for it. That exact same Driver Squadron Facist had flung him into a dark back room, where his coworkers proceeded to tie him to a table, read off his list of "offenses" and beat him three times for each offense. They performed this routine task to a handful of other prisoners, and kept them all tied up while the obedient ones sat around in the gathering room, gnawing on pieces of bread.

Jack had scoured the ground area for breadcrumbs, but didn't find a single speck. Now, he had gotten so hungry after missing two meals that he had resorted to chewing on the hay of his own cell. _I must look like some farming goober, _the back of his mind had snapped at him in disgust, but at that moment he felt so terrible, he really could care less.

The old man in the cell in the back glanced down at him, almost smugly. "What did I tell ya, Loudspeaker? Already, it's starting in on ya."

"Shut up…" Jack mumbled back to him. "I really don't feel like dealing with you." Then, he flipped over to one side, and the old man shook his head, despairingly. It looked like it was going to be another long night.

---

After a week living in nothing short of a labor camp, Jack slowly began to appreciate the little blessings in life that he'd never thought much of before. For instance, today, as he was shaking the pools of rainwater out of his heavy, torn trench coat, he looked up at the foreboding gray sky, and felt grateful that the sun wasn't out today to glare in his eyes. As much as it still hurt and ripped apart his body, Jack had slipped into the labor camp routine, begging for breakfast in the morning, working his butt off all afternoon, and trudging back to his cell in the late afternoon, after mini-lunch.

That one specific day, as he stepped up to his next position on the wooden cranks, an all-too-familiar voice spoke up on the side of him. "Hey, Loudspeaker!"

Jack glared over the same old man he took quarters next to. "Oh, great. Not only do I have to push this stupid cylinder around, but I have to deal with _you_ all day too? I don't think I'm going to survive today…"

The old man noticed a Facist worker driver casting dirty looks at their socializing and quickly snapped back into position at his handle. However, Jack knew this man too well; he couldn't keep quiet if his life depended upon it. Sure enough, as soon as they turned a corner and escaped the worker drivers' watch, he began again in a hushed voice.

"Today they're doing the de-weeding. You should be very grateful, you know, Loudspeaker… You don't have to worry about being weeded out…"

"Weeded out?" Jack replied, throwing a dirty glance back at the man. "Sorry…" he replied between his grunting under the cylinder's weight. "…but I don't see any…weeds…around…here. In fact…I don't see…any vegetation at all!"

"That's not what I mean…" the old man answered, moving his red eyes downwards in his pouching eyelids. If he didn't know better, he would've said that he was…worried.

The day passed as slowly and painfully as ever before. At least now, he had to be grateful for the annoying, yet somehow friendly company beside him. As the turbine slowly creaked around its joint, Jack noticed the Facists of the Driver Squadron once again scribbling down notes on their clipboards. Now, what was he doing wrong? He didn't think there was anything he was violating- he was simply pushing against his wooden crank… However, he had no idea what kind of "notes" they were really making.

Once, as they passed by a certain section of the field, Jack noticed odd streams of fire shooting up into the sky. "Ah," the old man spoke up, observing the fire pillars. "The dragon's having a bad day again."

"Dragon?" Jack asked. Come to think of it, one of the servants at the Hill Palace had said something about a dragon at the Hilltown electric plant.

"Yup," the man answered. "His name's Dojo Kanojo Cho. They locked him up here a long time ago for being a dangerous magical creature. He's been raging uncontrollably like this ever since."

_Dojo?_Jack wondered. _The Xiaolin Warriors' smart-aleck guardian dragon?__ Well, he has attacked people before… He's probably in that destructive state again…_

At last, after what seemed like another lifetime, the Facist leader standing in front of the rusted iron gates held up his arms to signal the end of the workday. Jack leaned his faltering body against the wooden handle. He'd been using this technique for a few days now. It made it look like he was still able to go on, and made it easier to get up and walk afterwards.

The old man next to him, however, didn't know of this strategy, and went crashing to the rocky ground below. For a moment, he actually felt a little concerned. If forced overwork made _him_ feel like he was going to die, what would it do to this seventy-year-old?

The man struggled to his feet and pulled his tattered cream-colored robe around him. "Go, Loudspeaker. Get away from the cylinder. I don't think they'll take you, but…you never know…"

"_Take_ me?" Jack slowly repeated between his gasps of exhaustion.

"As you all know, today we shall be performing the reoccurring weeding rituals," the feathered Facist leader announced, "Bernard, Mercanty!"

Jack stared in awe as another of those spider monkey men was violently pulled from his position at his cylinder handle. _What's going on? _He asked himself. He remained slumped over the turbine's handle while he watched several emaciated workers being prodded over into a group. Meanwhile, the Facist "collectors" were piling up the dead bodies of the day in the background.

At last, the black feather in the Facist man's white helmet flicked its airy fibers as he turned his head in their direction. "Henry Spicer," he called.

A shot of terror ran through Jack's heart. _He means me! Henry's my father's name, and my middle name…they probably have me mixed up with him!_

"It was…nice knowing you, Loudspeaker…" the old man grunted as he rose fully up on his feet again. "It'll be nice to finally get off this wretched planet…"

Jack gaped as the group of Facists rushed over, forcefully seizing the old man and carting him away towards the waiting group of workers in front of the gate. That could only mean…

"…_Dad_?!" Jack slowly whispered. As he observed the old man's face, he began to notice more features that were strangely similar to his father's. _This can't be… I would think I'd… All this time… _He couldn't sort out all of these confused, contradicting thoughts weaving throughout his brain, but there was one thing he knew was very clear- his father was in danger!

"Let him go!" he suddenly yelled, thrusting the grinding handle out of his hands. Now, he suddenly had something else to be thankful for- his boots, which enabled him to sprint across the rocky ground.

A few Facist workers separated from their herding or collecting groups to try to restrain him, but Jack was too fast for them. He slipped right under the reader's nose, and emerged next to the beefy men that held the frail old man. "I _said_ let him go!" he yelled at them. "That's my father you've got!"

The Facists just stared, dazedly at each other before bursting into laughter. "What are you some 'long-lost brother' or something?" one worker joked.

"Oh, just ignore that one's yammering," the feathered Facist leader advised them. "Remember what Gerald said when he dropped him off? He's got some mental illness. Thinks he's the Master from another life or something…"

"Dad!" Jack called to the slumped-over elder. "I know…you and I haven't really been friends, but…I want to save you!"

"L-Loud…speaker?" his decrepit father replied, lifting his head a bit. "Well…I always thought that you were a lot like my son when he was young…"

"I _am_ your son!" Jack tried to explain to him through the tumults of Facists and prisoners. "I'm your son from a time and a world before this! I came through a dimension portal, and…"

He never got a chance to hear or see a reply from the man. The three Facist guards around him closed in and pushed him off towards a small building in the distance.

Jack quickly turned around, and yelled to the feathered Facist man, "You can't do this! You can't just kill him! He's my father- the Master's father! Without him, I wouldn't have been born, and the Master wouldn't even be alive today!"

The stern-faced man didn't so much as glance over at him. "We're not the one that's killing him… Our jobs are simply to carry out the Master's orders. All workers in this Hilltown electric plant not working to a full, healthy potential shall be executed for our benefit."

There it was again. Jack stood, dumbfounded after hearing the sentence. _I took Kimiko's soul…I want to kill Julie…and now, I'm killing my father… Why? Why would I do that? I don't…want any of them to die!_

The Facists took this opportunity, while he was paralyzed, to grab him and hold him in a restraining grip. As much as he kicked and screamed, they wouldn't let go.

The feathered leader scowled over at him. "You're digging your own grave, child," he stated. "Do you realize how many offences you've tallied up in the last five minutes alone?"

Jack shot a dirty look back at him, deciding to ignore him for as long as possible. He squinted into the distance, where the Facists were prodding his aged father with a poker of some sort. Just from the look on his face, he could tell that he was crying.

"No!" his distressed, wavering voice suddenly cried out. "How could I not have realized my own forthcomings! What have I been fostering this entire time… To feed the bank of my own destruction! I wish I could start over now. I know what I did wrong! Spirits, forgive me!"

_He's talking about me…_Jack realized. _How he raised me wrong, and now I'm destroying him… He's asking for my forgiveness… _For a second, he felt a choking pain in the center of his throat. _It's not all your fault… I forgive you, Dad…_

And then, the Facists creaked open a round metal door on the clay building in front of them. A blazing inferno crackled loudly inside. Judging from the heavy lock on the iron door and the pipes and wires connected to the building, he realized what this had to be.

_"…and when you're all worn out, can't work anymore, or suddenly catch a disease, they burn you for fuel." _Everything Mr. Spicer had said so far was horrifyingly true. They were going to burn him to death…_alive_.

Mr. Spicer turned his head up to the sky, desperately one last time before the Facist workers prodded him into the oven, and quickly slammed and locked the door behind him.

Jack blinked, his red eyes the same hue as the inside of that hellish inferno. Suddenly and unexpectedly, he managed to twist his body in the exact right position, smacking his captors in the jaws. Stunned, the ones holding his arms back dropped them for a moment. That moment was all he needed. Jack ran straight over the collapsed Facist, and although he had no idea where he was going, he headed for the back of the turbine, where he knew there weren't as many Facists on duty.

"After him!" the bedecked leader commanded.

Something was appearing just ahead…more fire. This time, it was giant bonfire. The murderous, thin points licked the dirty, clouded sky above. As much as he tried to shut out the terrible world around him, he couldn't help noticing when the group of collectors slid one of the dead workers out of the wagon. They heaved it straight into the orange glow, embers scattering as it hit the rest of the bonfire- it was all a pile of dead bodies.

Jack jerked his head away from the disturbing sight. He felt sick, and he'd never been so afraid in his entire life, the panic and adrenaline racing through his body. The Facists behind were gaining on him, but he spied another building in the immediate area.

Soon, he slammed against that door, unable to slow down his pumping legs or heart. Jack fumbled with the handle of the door and at last thrust it open, slamming and locking it immediately behind him.

For a moment of respite, he leaned on the other side of it, gathering the stale air of this room into his lungs. When Jack had at last calmed down a little, he opened his eyes and noticed the surprising interior. A dusty, old stone table stood in the center of the room, covered by a white, cobwebbed cloth.

Slowly, his dusty, dented, yet durable boots made their way forward towards that table. As strange as it was, there was something comforting, and soothingly familiar about this room. As he thought deeply on the obscurity of it, at last arrived at a fuzzy estimate. _This…can't be… I think this used to be…my basement. This is the table I work on when I create my robots…_

Still shaken, Jack glanced around the room, making sure there were no violent fiery Facists hiding in the dark corners. At last, he was right against the table and could easily observe the objects on its top. _Oh…so _that's _where they went…_

Various, familiar, magical objects sat on the white cloth. The Shen-Gong-Wu… There were a handful missing, those belonging to the Facist palace and exterior guards, but most were still gathered in the center. The Monkey Staff, the Two-Ton Tunic, the Sapphire Dragon (locked safely away), the Ring of Nine Dragons, the Crystal Glasses, the Changing Chopsticks, the Mind Reader Conch…

Jack bent over the table and sifted through the items. "Where is it? Where is it?" he muttered as he searched through the pile. At last, his hand bumped into something long, and coldly metallic. With a bit more effort, he carefully yanked the Shen-Gong-Wu from the pile of others that held it down. "Yes!" he called in victory. "The Sands of Time!"

The handheld hourglass shined a little when he called its name. _That's weird. How come it didn't transport me… _"Sands of Time!" he called, holding the magical time-traveling item up. Nothing happened. Jack quickly dusted the hourglass off with his sleeve, and tried again. "Sand of Time!" Still nothing. He hoped that this Shen-Gong-Wu would be able to send him back to the present and his own world. Nothing had happened at all. _Is it because I didn't come here through the Sands of Time? Or is it because this isn't really a time period- it's an alternate dimension… _Just as he was about to grab the Wings of Tanabi, thinking maybe he could fly out of the camp with it, a crackling, splintering noise slammed out of nowhere.

A long, heavy pole came smashing through the wooden door, as the Facists found his hiding place. "Step away from the Shen-Gong-Wu!!!" the feathered leader cried in fury. "It wasn't bad enough that you attempted to save a doomed victim, challenged our officials, and tried to escape from the premises, but now you are trying to steal the magical items of our authority!"

" I was just trying to get back to my own world!" Jack snapped back at them.

"And not to mention talkback!"

Jack struggled backwards and tried to grab a Shen-Gong-Wu to help him get away, but when he looked back, all he had was the Falcon's Eye. The Facists quickly surrounded him and much to his dismay, carted him back off to his little stable cell.

---

Something slammed into Jack's back again, and it took him back to the day he had first arrived in Julie's room. That suddenly seemed a long time ago. It had been ages since he'd been in his evil laboratory, creating evil henchmen, or cooking up new ways to steal the Shen-Gong-Wu. And now, as he observed the clay brown dome around him, he realized that this would be the end of it.

The Facists had mauled him pretty badly after they had captured him, and then thrown him back into the stable, he was sure of that. _This is a dream, _he finally recognized. _I must have gone unconscious after they threw me in…but I've never had this dream before. _Normally, Jack dreamed about ruling the planet, random things popping up, or flashbacks from his childhood, but this strange brown dome didn't seem to fit into any of those categories.

Glancing back, he saw a closed and bolted-down arch-shaped door. It was fuzzy, like everything else in a dream, but it was clearly recognizable from earlier that day. _That looks like…the door to the fuel burner!_

As soon as the words came into his unconscious head, a furious blaze sprang to life in every corner of the domed room. _It can't hurt me, _Jack told himself within the dream. _It's only a dream; it's not real. _But the flickering, stabbing points advancing on him certainly seemed very real. They were large, hungry flames, eager to swallow him alive.

The end of Jack's trench coat finally caught fire, and he quickly slipped it off, throwing in to the bottom of the room and trying to stamp the flames out. However, in this process, he exposed himself the other walls of flames, and they anxiously burst forth, engulfing the rest of his body in their glowing heat.

Jack screamed as a terrible feeling pricked his skin, like someone stabbing him all over his body at once. He fell forwards, slamming sideways up against the solid coolness of the clay door. Desperately, he banged his flaming fists and forearms against it. "LET ME OUT!" he shrieked as loud as he could. "HEEEEEELLLLP!!! PLEASE!!!" His useless cries were just as easily swallowed and lost forever in the satisfied roar of the inferno.

Suddenly, he lost all feeling and control over his arms and legs; he went flopping helplessly to the solid, eternal ground. _No…I don't want to die…there's still so much I want to do… Well, at least if I die, none of this will ever happen… _The dancing flames grew as they blanketed him, easing him into death.

Just then, Jack managed to turn his decaying head upward to see something…_someone _looming over the bonfire. It was another Facist man, grinning sinisterly at him. He was enjoying this…he was enjoying watching him burning to death.

The man slowly changed shape…now, he was Ultimate Master Jack Spicer…his future self, smiling and chuckling at his destruction. _But wouldn't that be destroying himself? …Destroying…myself…_

Slowly, the master extended his hand. There was a handheld golden object clutched in it…the Soul Scepter? No, this was no scepter.

Jack's eyes widened through the flames as he saw what it truly was. _The Shadow of Fear…_ That sparkling golden hawk could easily mean his death, if used now. "No!" Jack called, suddenly regaining his ability of speech. "No, put that thing back! Put it back!!! Put it back!!! Please, please put it away…"

---

A large man turned his black-and-white painted face to check on the boy. The Facist crossed his muscular arms and smirked amusedly at the sight. That same rebellious youth that they had sent him to keep watch over was now tossing in his unconscious sleep, obviously having some kind of nightmare. The amusing part was, he was also talking, or rather, yelling as he writhed in the piles of straw. "Put that thing back!!! Put it back, put it back!"

The guard broke into full-fledged deep laughter as he imagined just what he wanted put back. At last, to add to the hilarity of it all, he finally yelled so loud, his own screaming woke him up.

Jack's upper body shot upright as soon as he was conscious again, still unsure of what actually had happened. "Put it back…" he panted. "Put…it… Huh?" Jack shook his head and looked around him. Thankfully, he was back in the old familiar stable-like jail cell, surrounded by hay, but when he got a look at what was standing outside his cage, another flicker of terror shot through his chest. "Wh-what do you want?" he timidly asked the Facist man. Maybe…his dream was actually a _premonition_!

"I'm just here to keep an eye on you," the Facist answered, suppressing his chuckles. "Boss's orders. They decided you need to be placed under constant surveillance after that stunt you pulled yesterday."

Jack gulped, quietly. "Um…if you don't mind me asking… Each of you Facist guys have your own Shen-Gong-Wu, right? …Which one do you have?"

The man grinned again, and held up a golden hawk statue sitting on its golden pedestal. Jack's heart skipped a beat.

"…The Shadow of Fear."

Jack quickly pulled his coat close over his body, protectively, and scrunched back down into what he now considered his hay sanctuary. Those horrid flames burst back into existence within his mind. _It's not so strange to be thinking like that, _he reasoned. _My father died this way… I killed him. That was the worst thing I've ever felt in my life…feeling your own body melt to pieces, and knowing that in a few minutes you're going to be dead, and there's nothing you can do about it…_ The more he thought about it, deep in the forbidden inner sanctums of his mind, he came to terms with this strange new emotion now building a foundation in his soul. _I wouldn't wish that…on my worst enemy. I don't want anyone to have to go through something like that again…_

---

Days…weeks…months…how long had it been, exactly? There was no way of telling…the world seemed to fade into one everlasting cycle of monotony. Now, Jack knew exactly what his father meant when he had said he'd become like a rock…everything felt hardened over; he was dead inside… The prisoner camp was like the underworld, full of half-dead, half-alive monsters, performing their task. There was a difference between the human robots of the Hill Castle and the zombies of the electric plant. They were completely different species. And now, he had become one of them.

---

Darn, another stupid morning. Jack knew he would have to get up in a few minutes to avoid another lashing, but his body simply felt incapable of moving. He could feel the grime as it gathered over him, caked over his heavy eyelids, under his ears, crunching against his gums. He was too sick to throw up, and too sad to cry. There was no energy left for complaining, whimpering, or even screaming. There was nothing he could do.

_There's nothing left…_ Jack still managed to find his thoughts lost somewhere in the dusty eternity. _…all I can do is lie here and wait…for Death…_

As Jack heard the faint crackling and lurching of his own body, he closed his eyes and delved deep into the world of his inner mind. His body numb to the searing of the worker driver's whip, he at last managed to reach a destination…a slow, fuzzy realization…

---

"Hey, carrottop!" a little boy's snotty voice pierced out, as if from nowhere.

"You're an alien!" another sarcastic voice struck a blow.

"Ew! Stay away! It's the science freak!" A one-two punch, this time straight to the face.

A female voice…screaming, "I hate you!!!"

And finally, the all-too-familiar lines of a loving father… "Get it yourself." "Shut up, now." "Go away, I don't need you here bothering me all the time…" "I wish I had a real son…not this chicken who likes to call himself a son…" And, the most terrible of them all…silence. The dense, cold silence that surrounded everything.

---

At horrible memories like these, Jack would normally cry or shiver in fear, but now, in this numb, half-dead state, he could finally step back and look at the whole picture. _"You must never use your powers…" _It was a little late for that…

_…I will survive, _Jack finally set in his head. _…I will go on. Just like I always have. I got here, didn't I? Yes, I'm still here… It doesn't matter…what they do to me…_

Without even noticing his external actions, Jack was beginning to struggle to his feet. Though those brutal attacks had formed a wall around him, at that moment of relation with Julie, he had blown those solid brick walls to bits. _"It doesn't matter…what they do to you. There's no reason you have to keep in hiding…forever." _All it takes…is for one person to truly believe in you…before you can begin to believe in yourself. I will carry on…there is nothing to fear…I will carry on…

At last, Jack broke from his cold, death spell, rushing to the door of the quarters. He couldn't trip over his feet now…because they were his feet.

A group of worker driver Facists appeared at the end of the tunnel, ready to block this resistant young worker and place him back where he belonged.

Jack closed his eyes again, listening to the music of his own heart, fluctuated breathing, and pounding footsteps. _I will carry on_, he focused, driving any shreds of fear out of his body.

The sturdy men in armor grew closer…another obstacle…another hurdle to jump…and jump it he would, even if he had to knock it down in the process.

The armored guards all bent inwards to catch the troublemaking youth. Then, Jack slipped in, and as if moving in slow motion, burst through the blockade of stunned guards, clutching something shining gold within his fist.

At the sound of the victorious uprising, the droves of prisoners immediately stopped where they were and dropped their cranks. "…It's him!" they hissed to each other in hushed voices. After that 'weeding day', word had gotten around about how Jack had nearly staged a successful escape, and had struggled to save one of their kind. A few workers that had worked alongside him beforehand were still stunned. Who would ever believe that _this _cowardly boy would be the one to finally…

"Don't just stand there!" Jack called, looking strangely compelling and determined. "Now is your chance!" With a swift flick of the wrist, Jack tossed the keys into the closet prisoner's hands.

He stared at the sacred items for a moment in disbelief, but then snapped to life, commanding his coworkers to a fever-pitch revolt. The righteously angry mob of prisoners swarmed towards the workers' quarters, bravely taking on Facists they found in the way. Even the Shen-Gong-Wu couldn't protect the villains now.

Jack turned his head and smiled back at them as he fled the scene. He had successfully passed on his own fire and determination. He wished them luck with all that he had.

It wasn't until he reached the other side of the turbine until he realized that he had no idea where to go. He could wait until the mob unlocked the exit gates and charge out with them, but somehow he thought that would be waiting too long and risking recapture.

By this time, his fierce motivation was starting to wear off, and slowed his pumping legs to a complete stop. After all this time, however long it had been, Jack's boots had worn down, and were now filled with dirt and sand and had gaping holes in their sides. All of his clothes were tattered and stained, and his coat just barely clung to his bony shoulders, since it had now become sleeveless. His hair was sticking out at odd angles, and parts of it were matted down with dirt.

Jack leaned his hands against his knees for a minute or two to rest, but soon a team of Facist worker drivers spotted him in the distance, and came careening after him.

He frantically glanced back, and broke into a run again, praying that neither of them had the Shard of Lightning. Jack fought against the air currents pushing him back and ignored the stinging of the rocks against the bottoms of his feet.

Suddenly, columns of fire began shooting up towards the dreary gray sky. They came from different angles and at different times, some more powerful than others. _Dojo, _Jack remembered from that experience before. _It looks like everyone's disturbed by this uprising. _

The Facists were gaining on him, so he closed his eyes again and put all his effort into running. If he didn't…if they caught him this time, he'd most likely be killed. Trying to save his father from burning alive was one thing, but starting a criminal revolt was in a totally separate league.

A tall brick wall stood in his way just ahead. If only he had some way of getting over it… _If I had my HeliPack… no, I've got to think of some way of getting over this thing myself. I don't think that's possible… _Just as he began to give up all hope, his red eye fell upon a long metallic beam the workers had abandoned at his appearance. A crazy idea crawled into his mind, and he figured he'd most likely kill himself if he tried this, but it was worth a shot. _If I don't try it, I'll end up dead anyway,_ he reasoned.

As Jack sped towards the brick barricade, he reached downwards and wrenched the metal beam up beside him. Then, just before the wall stopped his escape, he thrust the pole down into the ground and flung his body upwards with all his might. Jack closed his eyes and prayed again for this to work. He was suspended in the middle of the air, with only this thin pole supporting him…then, he began to dip downwards again, falling forward over the top of the brick wall.

The protective spikes at the tip scratched at his legs and ripped off a good portion of his coat, but that was when he knew that he was going to make it. _Yes! _He said to himself in relief. _A perfect pole vault! And I've never done one before in my life!_

The three Facists came to a halt on the other side. "Did you _see _that?" the first one asked. "That crazy kid just vaulted over the fort wall!"

"We all saw it," the third one replied. "Boss isn't going to like this…"

"_So_?!" the second one objected, turning to his partner on the left. "Can't you just use your Serpent's Tail and go after him?"

"No," the fourth answered with a sly smile. "That kid may have thought he'd escaped, but he's got no idea where he's just vaulted into." The others nodded and uttered signs of assent, and they all sauntered back towards their quarters.

Meanwhile, Jack landed roughly on the other side of the wall. He got up and brushed himself off. Blinking confusedly, he looked around at his surroundings. "Where's this?" he asked himself. "It doesn't look like that old, creepy town…" He simply scratched his head and stepped forward into the unknown…and straight into the lair of the captured dragon Dojo Kanojo Cho.


	6. True Destiny

Yes, yes, the only things I own are Julie, the Soul Scepter, and in this chapter…the Vase of Viscous Visions! (though I did have a little help naming it).

Jack and Dojo…now that is a weird combination. For this section, I gave Dojo a much different personality…it seems he's changed a lot in the last 30 years… and I really wanted him in a more "wise and mysterious old dragon" role. And I know…I'm not the first person to think of what happens at the end of this chapter. I didn't steal the idea from anyone; I came up with it myself, and then saw that other people had had the same idea… so I'm sorry if it seems copied and unoriginal. Here goes nothing! Oh, and the "Vase" in "Vase of Viscous Visions" is pronounced "VAHZ", otherwise, it sounds weird… I know the "in darkness" part near the beginning is weird, but try to think about it in a metaphoric sense.

Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! I've actually never gotten so many reviews for a chapter! I need to give a thank you to those I didn't thank before- SpicerFreak and DerryBabe. And everyone else, too. I'll give everyone a personalized thank you at the end. Yeah, I upped the rating because of last chapter. I know it was a little…intense, but I'm trying to show the epitome of evil here. After this chapter, you'll know what it was all leading up to. And, yes, here's a relief: last chapter was probably the darkest out of the entire story. Except maybe 7, where there's a little bit of blood. I know it's unusual that I'm dong all this intense stuff with Jack, who is normally more of a comic relief character, but…it's just my twisted mind. I'm always so tragic and depressing. I think I'll go join Jack in the goth-ness…

---

Chapter 6: True Destiny

In a much different time and place, on the other side of the shifted particles of matter, it was a calm and peaceful day in the Xiaolin Temple. It was too early for the young dragons-in-training to be up yet, so only Master Fung and Dojo were out, strolling the deep, inner room of the temple, where the dragons were forbidden to go.

"It's just like old times, huh Dojo?" the wise old master addressed his minimized dragon companion.

"A little _too _much like old times," Dojo replied. He hunched closer to his friend's shoulder as tingles shot down his scaly spine.

"Is it…?" Master Fung asked in alarm. Dojo nodded, painfully.

The old temple master looked worriedly up at a stained glass painting embedded in the window above their heads. A young woman stood amidst a raging, destructive world, with a silvery glow surrounding her. The temple stood underneath her feet, also engulfed in her protective shield.

"Marylyn…" Master Fung slowly spoke up again. He stared deeply into the face of the redheaded girl. "If your will be in the world today, let it rise and join its place, to find its own identity and embrace its true destiny…"

---

_Cold…so cold…so cold and dark…pitch-black…blindness…death… I have no hands…no feet…no body…I don't exist. _There was only one reasonable option. And that was to curl up in a little ball and try to hide, waiting for whatever was beyond that endless black curtain to utterly destroy him. _Somehow, this feels familiar…just lying here…waiting for my doom. I should get up again, and do what I always do…carry on. Like what I did in the Facist's cell. _

Looking a little bit up from his scabbed knees, Jack once again tried to permeate this darkness with his eyes. Needless to say, it wasn't working. He knew basically what he needed to do…why was it so _hard_ this time to do it? That was because it required a little more than a determined mindset to drive this away.

The cool, shivering caverns, if those were what they were, only made him shrivel further into the back of the corner, nestling closer into his own world, not separated from the one around him. _I can't stay here forever… Someday, I'm going to be killed, or I'm going to starve to death, or die from dehydration… If I get up and try to find an exit…an outlet…then that eliminates two of the future possibilities, doesn't it?_

Slowly and hesitantly, Jack uncurled himself and got to his knees. He didn't want to leave; he didn't want to venture blindly into the darkness, but it was the only thing he could do now to save his soul. It took everything in his newly enhanced powers to take the next step. It was so difficult not to take the easy way out, but to reach inside himself and embrace what he truly wanted to do. Finally, fostering that strange, yet undoubtedly true feeling, Jack took the plunge into the cold, dark unknown.

This was impossible. There was no way he could make it out of the darkness alone. He needed someone to guide him along. "…Help…" his weak, whispery voice faltered forward. His trembling, scratched-up hand slowly raised itself, reaching forward, searching for a support. Reaching out…trying to find someone to aid him.

A few minutes later, he chanced to open his eyes again, and try to see if the world had changed at all as a result of this action. His own battered, barely gloved hand swelled into view in front of him. There was a strange sort of glow emanating from the other side of it. Slowly, the rest of his body began to appear once again, piece by piece, out of the darkness.

"…What?" Jack whispered in wonderment. A magical stream of fire was somehow swirling around his body, though it wasn't harming him. The little globes of flame illuminated the area, hanging in midair peacefully.

Something else was now materializing from that strange glow under his hand. It was greenish-blue…and suspiciously scaly. Jack trembled in his now nonexistent boots as the looming, colossal, hard face of Dojo Kanojo Cho the dragon, leered down at him, his already frightening face silhouetted by the flaming orange "beard" around his jaw.

His immediate though was to run for his life, but he stopped those thoughts, realizing that Dojo actually was the one that had lit up the area for him. He could possibly owe his life to this raging monster. "D-Do…jo…"

The monstrous dragon moved his head in a bit closer to him, until his forehead was touching Jack's hand, still extended in front of him. His arm seemed to be frozen in that position. Te dark red voids of Dojo's eyes glared back up at him. Then, finally, the dragon receded, standing up a bit taller to reach over the frozen hand.

Jack's body couldn't stop trembling as the evil, mythical creature moved his maw even closer to his head. _Oh my God…_he realized. _He's going to try to eat me! _Yet, he knew he shouldn't move. Well, I can never find the end of this darkness; I'm doomed to die anyway. If I stay here, then…"

Finally, Dojo lowered his front body down, to touch against his head, nudging him in a sweet, teasing manner.

Jack laughed, partly from the surprise of the fierce creature's ironic actions and partly from the release of the fear and tension gripping his body. "Ha…haha…stop it, you big mangy dragon! Hahahaha, that tickles! Get your beard or whatever out of my face!"

The giant dragon slowly pulled away from his face, a slight smile fading onto his large greenish lips.

"Dojo…" he slowly chanced asking, being very careful not to say anything too harshly to the super-power dragon guardian. "…Are _you _the one that came to help me?"

The wise old creature at last nodded his head, Obviously, in this terrible torture and abuse from the new king of the planet, Dojo had lost his ability to speak.

"I'm…I'm…I'm sorry, Dojo…" Jack slowly and hesitantly admitted. "I never meant for all this to happen. I always figured that if I ruled the world, everything would just basically be the same…except everyone would have to respect me. …I killed my own father, half the planet's population, and possibly my own daughter too…" He glanced down at the ground, and took a deep breath, forcing himself to continue. "…I just wish I could get back out of here…so I could do something about it…before I die…"

At the sound of his truly heartfelt confession, the gargantuan dragon slithered his long, scaly body around, glancing back, expectantly.

"Are you…" Jack asked in awe, "…offering to let me ride on your back?"

The suddenly kindly guardian nodded a second time in agreement. He turned his large, narrowing head back to the front as he approached, and glanced around the blackened area, looking for an escape route. His flame could usually make it through the grated ceiling, but…

Jack hesitantly lowered himself onto the rough, scaly skin of the Xiaolins' former temple guardian and Shen-Gong-Wu locator. He'd had bad experiences in the past on the back of this very dragon, but the magical golden glow outlining the creature calmed and comforted his fears.

Dojo began to lift off, straight up, slicing through the endless blackness…until suddenly, with a suction force and a wind noise, it at last obliterated, and the two plunged into the clear, hopeful blue sky.

The shaken Hilltown villagers below screeched in alarm at the sight of the terrorizing dragon streaming through their skies. Some of them rushed into their houses to gather their families into the basement. These families even had an "emergency dragon escape plan". The protesting teenagers held up banners reading, "the end is nigh!" and the newsstand owners snapped away at the two of them, looking to make front-page news tomorrow.

"That way," Jack commanded, pointing out towards the great expanse in the distance, spreading out towards the horizon. "Let's get out of this place. What do you say, Dojo?"

The former guardian dragon nodded, and shifted directions, turning his long body towards the endless landscape. It was a bit difficult to navigate through the puffy, swirling spiral of dark clouds, just like it had been on the Silver Manta Ray the day the Facists had taken him to the electric plant, but Dojo's keen eyesight enabled him to see much better than the Facist men ever could. He was faster than the manta ray as well, and only a few minutes later, they burst from the pressed cloud cover, and out into the freedom of the new open range.

Jack couldn't help himself when he saw the long, spreading land below them, and let out a happy shout at the sight of it. Dojo glanced back, noticing his anxiousness to be away from the castle again, and sped up a little. After a few more bumpy minutes of flying, Dojo at last landed gracefully on the flat, open, dry land ahead.

"Yes!" Jack cried, slipping from the dragon's smooth scales. "Now we could just fly back to China, and everything will get back to normal!"

Dojo stared blankly back at him, and motioned with his claw as if to scratch his head.

"You know where China is, right?"

More confused staring.

"Oh, come on! You live in China! You've always lived in China! You were _born and raised_ in China, for crying out loud!" Jack motioned frustratingly at the large, clueless dragon in front of him.

Dojo just continued to stare, and glance around him in puzzlement.

"Geez…" Jack said, talking to himself, since his reptilian companion suddenly couldn't understand him. He turned away from the mythical beast and put his head in his hands in concentration. "I finally decide to do something good for a change…I'm trying to save the planet here! And I still can't get the job done. I have no idea how to get back home, and there's nothing I can do to help now…"

Suddenly, Jack stopped right after that sentence. _There's nothing I can do to help now… _That wasn't entirely true. He had helped the tortured prisoners escape, hadn't he? He'd helped save Julie's life back in the throne room just by being there… _What am I talking about? _Jack asked himself. _I'm not "useless" without my gadgets and my Shen-Gong-Wu. Look how much I've done right now without their help. _Thinking about this now with a positive outlook, he looked down into the distance, and saw the gathering swirls of storm clouds, spiraling ominously behind Dojo's head. Just under them was the same coal black castle, as small as a postage stamp now in the distance, outlined by the insignificant brown spot of Hilltown.

"So…" he slowly spoke up, staring at what was now considered the world. "That's just…it. All this space, and there's just nothing for thousands of miles… It seems like such a waste. Everything's just gone…except for the Hill, and Hilltown, that is. I probably only kept Hilltown in operation so I'd have _something_ to rule over, huh? But it took all this destruction to climb the ladder…seems pretty pointless…"

Dojo stared back at Jack, lifting his neck straighter upright, as if on edge.

"I need to go back there," Jack firmly decided. "I can't just walk away from everything like this. If I never find a portal back home, this is what I'm going to have to deal with. It's not like I can't change the future while still in the future, right?" He smiled back up at Dojo, and slowly began to hear a low, comforting voice reverberating in his head.

_"Now that's the spirit." _

Jack looked back up at Dojo in amazement. "Did…you just say that? I figured you couldn't talk anymore…"

_"No, I'm not speaking," _the voice came again, and it was true, the dragon's lips remained pasted together. _"This is my thought wavelength. I'm projecting my thoughts to you. I haven't been able to speak to humans for about twenty-three years."_

"Why?" Jack continued to pry for answers. If he knew a little bit more of how his new world worked, then maybe he could find a way to change it. "I know it's got something to do with your imprisonment…"

_"I was so angry when they locked me up in that power plant…slowly, I began to retreat from the human world altogether. I figured that all hope in the world was lost, and only hatred filled the planet. I never thought that _you'd _be the one to do something like this…it's more fitting of Wuya, but I guess the path you were on combined with her aura power… Well, at least now, your…" _Dojo abruptly cut his thoughts off and turned his head back away from him. _"Never mind.__ I got a little off-topic there. You don't need to know about all that… C'mon, climb on."_

Jack stared at the curving, serpent-like body of the dragon with a slightly puzzled expression. Somehow, he thought Dojo was hiding something from him, and that whatever he was going to say _had _been something he needed to know…but, why argue with your mode of transportation? He gently slipped his body back on top of the large coils and wrapped his arms around Dojo's neck for balance. Dojo zoomed back off into the sky, slicing like a jet plane through the air currents with his slender body.

The view from this height was amazing. How had he not noticed this wonder before? Well, of course it was a much different view riding trunk… The foreboding blackness of the Hill Castle was growing closer in the distance, now about the size of an index card. Then, a terrible dread feeling began to build in his chest again, thinking about the tasks that lay before him in that imposing building.

"We've got to get back to the castle…" Jack said, softly into the lizard's bumpy skin. "I don't know…if…what they've done with Julie…"

_"No," _the gentle, commanding voice of Dojo wavered out again. _"Not right now. It's getting really dark." _

"Yeah, but who knows what has happened!"

_"Exactly.__ Who knows? She could be perfectly fine." _The large, flying dragon slowed to a complete stop underneath a giant, shady tree. _"I think we both need to get some rest."_

"So you're telling me you can't fly anymore, is that it?" Jack snapped back. "Well then, fine. I'll just walk the rest of the way myself!" He slipped his limp body forward, towards the rounded end of the slippery scales. As soon as he did, the long, hard, fleshy tail of the ancient lizard slammed into his flat chest.

_"Don't be stupid," _the wise inner voice of the dragon told him. _"You'd collapse somewhere in town and die of starvation. Either that, or the Hilltown Facist patrol will just arrest you and bring us back to the electric plant…"_

"Yeah…I guess you're right," Jack slowly admitted. "But who's to say they won't find us here, just lying around under a tree…how can they miss a huge dragon like you? Couldn't you do that shrinking thing?"

_"Shrinking thing?" _the dragon asked, wrinkling his already wrinkly green forehead.

"_Yeah_…" Jack replied, as if it were supposed to be obvious. "Actually, you usually remained in your shrunken form, but used this form to fly the Xiaolin Warriors around. You remember? I threw up when I had to ride on your back the first time."

_"Really?"_Dojo replied, chuckling amusedly.

"But not now," Jack quickly added. "I'm a little more used to it now, and besides, the electric plant…"

Dojo nodded, in friendly understanding. _"That's precisely why we need to stop and rest now. You're worn out from that mistreatment."_

"I thought you just didn't feel like flying the rest of the way."

_"Oh, no.__ We dragons can go for a while without sleep…but you're very weak, I can feel it in you…" _

Jack glared back up, just about to object, but realized that the logical old reptile was right again.

_"It's okay to stop and rest," _that comforting voice began again. _"And don't worry about being found, because I have the ability to become invisible. …Managed to snag the Shroud of Shadows from one of those Facist guys…" _Just then, the dragon winked happily at him, a bit of his old recognizable personality surfacing.

"You know…" Jack commented as he lied back against the green dragon skin. "Everything's so different here. You're a lot different now…you don't seem like Dojo."

_"Well, you're a lot different too," _Dojo replied. _"You don't seem like Jack Spicer." _He smiled mysteriously, and handed a long black cloth to him. _"Here. I can't use this since I can't speak…" _

Jack held the sheet up and called, "Shroud of Shadows!" Then, tossing the expanding cloth over Dojo, they both disappeared into the scenery of this new, changing Earth.

---

It was happening again. At least this dream had a category: flashbacks, though that didn't make it any easier to bear. The normally soothing coolness of the metal plate against his back now filled him with dread, creating a very real sense of the world around him. It was a rare occurrence, but it did happen every now and then, and thankfully, Jack's critical sorceress partner was absent at the time of this breakdown.

The gray, concrete walls of the second-floor abode couldn't provide any of the support he needed, and he'd slipped down into the soil in an effort to escape. However, a security lock had sprung up in its place. There was no escaping now. Jack stared up into the metal-plated ceiling, thinking of everything that could be going on just on the other side.

It was a fierce combination that hadn't risen its ugly head in a few years, but… There was something missing; there was an empty hole that just couldn't be filled in, even though he tried to mask it with pieces of tarp, or disguise it with a fake ground cover. It was a random day that came out of nowhere…when everything just felt wrong.

Jack closed his eyes and tried to make everything in his clouded mind disappear. He didn't need this now! He had plans to make, machines to create, countries to conquer… Instead, he was lying around on a working table, soaking in his own misery. For some reason, he longed to be just like every other boy his age- to spend time happily playing games, going on trips, or doing other activities together with a family…any family…any friends. As much as he always believed that he didn't need people to live and be happy, it was very difficult to actually go on like this. Traveling around the planet, he had always observed the same thing- happy families, and groups of schoolmate buddies on a casual expedition.

Slowly, and almost painfully, a small tear forced itself from his white powdered eyelid cages. _No! _Jack scolded himself. _I'm a guy, an _evil _guy, and the future ruler of the planet; I don't cry!!! _He immediately curled his body into a defensive, fetal position and tried to hide the fact. It was impossible to hide something from a prying, gaseous purple witch, but for the moment, Jack didn't even care if she floated in at the moment and saw his pathetic weeping. However, it was even harder to hide it from his own mind.

Slowly, as he lied at the center of the room, trying to work out his feelings, something strange permeated through the dense, oil-scented air. As Jack trembled, trying to withhold his pent up frustration and longing, a dull scraping sound arose from the various cabinets and closets lining the water-proofed rock walls.

Large, hulking pieces of plating began emerging out of the darkness. Everything that he had strived to create, once a dream, an idea that had crawled into his crazy mind, slowly stepped or hovered up, approaching their own central focal point. And the one thing that bound them all together towards the platform was Jack. They didn't really know what they were doing, and where they were going, but it seemed that something in their composition innately drew them to that point. From the ceiling-dwelling wormy shooters, to the armor-plated patrol guards, and even the shape-shifting, free-thinking lizard replica. They crept up on their creator, without even knowing why.

Jack, hidden in the dual cloaks of darkness in an effort to mask his inner emotions, trembled and at last attempted to pull himself up. It was the same feeling that he had gotten in the dragon's darkened lair. _I can't stay here forever…_ Unfortunately, in his own desolate state, he failed to notice the odd energy perimeter gathering over the area.

When Jack finally opened his glassy eyes, he managed to recognize a blurry bronze figure growing closer to his cot. He reached out for balance, and instinctively, the Jack-bot reached out an extending wire arm for Jack to rest his hand against. To add to the obscurity of this whole experience, the presence of the robot, essentially his child, was now strangely comforting to him. His eyes began to dry up again, and the world came into better focus around him as a second Jack-bot pressed up against his chest. They seemed to somehow understand that this was their father- the one that had brought them into the world, and right now he needed their help. It was unusual that what he had never realized before…an uncanny fondness for these machines began growing inside of him. This was what having friends and caring family members was like. If only they were real people…

"Jack!!!" a raspy female voice suddenly yelled, and the magical aura, as well as the peace and serenity, disappeared into thin air.

Jack quickly wiped his face on his sleeve and pretended to be checking on the robots around him as Wuya came flying into the room. But there was no way he could ever have the things he really wanted if he had to keep in hiding the rest of his life…

---

Dojo felt as the boy tucked within his spiraling tail began to tremble, at last waking out of his disrupted slumber. The dragon guardian had been keeping close watch over his passenger all night when Jack had started tossing about, restlessly. He must be having a nightmare of some sort, Dojo had surmised, so he was very relieved when the tattered boy began to stretch and awaken. _"Good morning." _He projected at him.

Jack stared, dazedly at the gentle giant reptile, getting a feel for this world and what had really happened. "Oh…Dojo. That's right…" He shook his head a little, remembering the unusual feelings of those dreams, and tried to put it into words. "Uh, Dojo? I've been having these weird dreams lately…where I see things that have happened to other people…and suddenly it's happening to me…and then, I don't want it to happen to them…"

Dojo turned around and cracked a small smile at him. _"That's called _compassion _Jack," _he thought to him. _"And I know it's a new concept to you, so these dreams would be completely normal." _

Suddenly, Jack lit up once again, realizing their original mission. "We've got to get back to the Hill Palace! Julie might not really be dead yet…" Julie…as he pronounced the precious name, he realized just what she was once again. He'd just had that flashback dream, feeling that his robot minions were like his children…but Julie really _was _his child.

_"Hold up," _Dojo thought-projected to him. _"You can't just wake up and go without having anything to eat." _The kindly dragon reached up with his yellow-plumed tail and plucked a few round fruits resembling melons from the green long-leaved tree above their heads. He handed one to Jack, and tossed the other into his own jaws, breaking it open with one mighty bite.

Jack stared in amazement at the light green fruit in his hands. It had been so long since anyone had given him food, especially of this size, and especially after attempting to rescue his father and steal the Facists' Shen-Gong-Wu. He snapped into recognition at last, and began ravenously gnawing on the melon-like fruit.

_"Don't eat too fast," _Dojo advised him. _"Especially after…"_

"I know, I know," Jack replied, glancing back up at his reptilian partner as he broke away from the melon for a moment. "You know, this probably wasn't a good idea. …You might regret it later."

At last, flickers of the past were coming through Dojo's mind again, and he thought he remembered something like this happening in a distant past, almost like a different lifetime.

They waited a few minutes, staring up at the rising sun, fighting to rise above the dirty smog of Hilltown. Dojo bent his majestic head to the reddish-yellow blaze, bowing before the edge of the planet itself. Then finally, he turned his head and smiled, mysteriously back at Jack. _"Okay, are you ready?" _

Jack slowly nodded and flipped back around, wrapping his arms around the dragon's long body. It felt unusually comfortable pressing against those scales, and as Dojo began to lift up into the sky, he felt an internal sense of necessity take hold of him. There was something here he needed to do; there was a reason why he had been sent to this twisted, oppressed future world, and he still wasn't sure of what that purpose really was.

The dark blob of Hilltown grew closer and closer, and soon the whole world seemed to pass from the bright, blazing sunbeams of the endless landscape of the outside to the dark gloom and misery of the Hill Community.

_"Okay, we're getting closer to the castle, and the guards, so we need to be very cautious," _Dojo thought to him.

Jack took the hint and pulled out their magical cloth again. "Shroud of Shadows!" Both the long, stately dragon and the ragged goth boy disappeared into thin air just before they passed over the grayish brown blob of Hilltown. As they swept through the polluted clouds, Jack looked down to see all the small dot-sized people milling around. They looked like a white sea of dust particles or blood cells, congregating here and there, and then scattering to different corner of the village. But, a few minutes later he had to stop since watching the activity down below was beginning to make him feel sick, and he forced his eyes to stare straight ahead of Dojo's bobbing head.

_"This is quite a thick cloud cover," _Dojo was thinking to himself. _"I bet this was created to reduce air traffic and discourage flying escape routes…"_

"You're right," Jack affirmed from behind. "The Facists said the exact same thing."

Dojo gritted his large fang-like teeth. _"I can't believe this! It's one thing to rule over all the people in the planet, and have complete control over their lives, but it's even more despicable to control the weather, the climate…control _nature_ like some kind of god…"_

Jack shivered when the pointed, coal-black castle appeared at last out of the fog, its menacing towers trying to overbear him. It didn't help matters that it happened to emerge just as Dojo finished his rant on the Ultimate Master's policy. Looking up into those glowing red windows, where women screamed, people died, and lives were destroyed, Jack only wanted to turn his living airplane around and get as far away from this place as possible…but, he couldn't. There was something waiting for him in the castle, his purpose was somehow connected with it, and he couldn't turn his back on his own fate.

_"Here we are," _Dojo commented, slowing his flight and gently lowering to the burnt-up grass on the lawn of the Hill Castle. Jack gulped nervously and slipped from the back of what was now his guardian dragon. Dojo removed the Shroud of Shadows from around his body, and handed it gently to Jack.

Receiving the magical, legendary item, Jack glanced around in a panic. "What are you doing?!" he hissed at the giant reptile. "This place is loaded with guards! If you take this off, you'll be spotted and captured again!" He reached up to slip the fabric back on, but Dojo immediately pushed it back over his shoulders.

_"Relax," _he commented. _"You see, if I get caught, I can fight them off… I'm more worried about you. With no weapons or items…"_

"…I'm useless," Jack finished, with a sigh.

_"Well, I was going to say you have less of a chance of escaping, but…" _At last, Dojo gestured to the large drawbridge door of the castle, as if urging him on. _"Alright now.__ You slip in and just grab the princess. If I haven't been captured, I'll be waiting for the two of you just outside. Try to be quick."_

Jack gathered his breath, in a no doubt useless attempt to muster up some courage, and at last nodded to his guardian. Finally, he secured the Shroud of Shadows around his body and forced himself forward, bolting into the Hill Castle, straight past a half-asleep doorman. Dojo poked his large maw out for a moment to watch and then quickly hid himself in the shadows again.

Unfortunately, the Shroud of Shadows didn't have the power to make him go through walls, and Jack ended up barging in on another chanting ritual in the central chamber. A few of the Jack-monks glanced over at the unusual sight of the door opening all by itself, but were obliged to keep on chanting no matter what happened, and ignored the presence.

Jack quickly glanced around and tracked the direction of the throne room stairs, recalling their chase through the corridors on that day when Julie had tried to save her mother. He glanced down the hall towards the direction he remembered. As he flew, mindlessly over the smooth stone flooring, he thought that he should probably stop, run back to Julie's room, and grab his HeliPack. Just as he was seriously considering it, a small group of workers holding trays passed right in front of him. Jack had to lunge out of the way so he didn't bump into them and raise suspicions.

"What's the word?" the one on the left whispered to his companion.

"They took her up to be evaluated. Finally. It took them long enough, eh? I think the Master was trying to get something before he tried her, but he can't hold it off for any longer. It's already been two months…"

Two months…so that was how long it had been. As vague as their descriptions were, Jack needed no clarification in order to understand their statement. Julie had been taken to the Hill Palace dungeons, and kept there two months, while his future self tried to get himself a son. When nothing happened, he had no choice but to at last take Julie up to the throne room to evaluate her social and moral condition. She was still alive! There was a tiny sliver of hope left, but now, that hope could be snatched out from underneath him in an instant.

Jack quickly glanced back down the hall that lead to Julie's room and his HeliPack, but quickly snapped back forward. There was no time! Julie could be dying now for all he knew.

Suddenly, Jack thought of how strange it was how much he suddenly cared. Julie _was_ his future daughter, but he felt he'd never cared about anyone so much before in his entire life. As the gray stone of the Hill Palace's dismal walls flashed past his face, other, very different visions flashed through his mind, as clearly as the walls on the side. The familiar girl appeared in front of him once again. Her long, shiny black hair cascaded over her shoulders, and her face burst into rosy color as a smile crept onto it. She was spinning around, illuminated in a sort of holy luminescence from the candles surrounding them. Then, there was her true face, as her own tears swept away the terrifying white mask, instituted to hide that beautiful truth.

Jack shook his head and focused on the task sitting in front of him. He couldn't try to blot out this connection, as he did with all others. Julie was the closest thing to his own spirit. It was only natural that he cared about her above all others.

When he looked down one corridor, he thought he saw the familiar spiral staircase, so he mindlessly flew down that one. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, he realized that it wasn't the right way at all. Jack found himself in an unfamiliar, darkened room.

_Well, at least now I can take the Shroud of Shadows off…_ He glanced around, curiously as he reappeared in this mysterious location. There wasn't much time left…but something innately drew him to the back of the room, where something was sitting, expectantly on a pedestal, glowing faintly.

As Jack drew closer, he realized that it was a vase of some kind. It was a watery blue color and almost seemed to make ripples in the air around it. Various square designs lined the outside, but a large image of an eye stared straight at him on the front. "What is _that_ thing?" he whispered to himself. "And what is it doing in a room all by itself like this?"

The illusionary decorative piece was beckoning him, and slowly he complied, stepping forward and fitting his hands around its arching handles. As soon as he did, a vision, a memory of some sort popped out from nowhere. Jack saw…himself. He was standing in the stone hall of his own house, clutching the very same pot.

"There it is…" he heard his own voice speaking. "The Vase of Viscous Visions…"

"The Vase of Viscous Visions?" Jack said, popping back out into this world he was in. Instantly, the blue vase began to react. He looked down to see something swirling up inside of it.

"That was the one that stored memories, right?" his voice spoke up again from the vision.

"Stores…memories?" he repeated in fascination. The iridescent bubble was swelling over the clay, potted lips of the container. Shining, crystalline shades of blue and purple misted through the quivering globe. The swelling began growing, and Jack knew that if he even touched the gentle structure, it would probably pop and spill the memories all through the room.

The fluffy particles of multicolored substances grew closer and closer, and somehow, he couldn't take his eyes off of them. At last, a cold, wet feeling washed over his body, and the fibrous, multicolored clouds slowly morphed into people, walls, furniture, and other paraphernalia.

There was his ultimate future form again, goatee and all, leering sinisterly down at another person, standing defiantly at the base of the dais. His flickering vermillion eyes narrowed further as they painfully let in that despicable creature before him.

_Julie_, was the first thing that Jack thought, but when he looked out at the rebellious woman, noticed her contradictory blonde, highlighted hair. She wore a tattered brown dress, exposing her forearms and legs, which were painted stark white, of course, along with the black lines under her eyes.

"What do _you_ want, kid?" Ultimate Master Jack spoke up in a deep, malevolent voice.

"Don't move," the blonde woman commanded in a hard, determined tone. "Or I'll shoot this thing." She suddenly aimed a long weapon with one bulbous container on the end straight towards future Jack's face.

The global monarch suddenly exploded in raucous laughter. "Oh, please. Don't waste my time. You really think you can 'overthrow' me with that stupid little swarm of hornets? I really thought you would have gotten a clue by now…"

"No," the lady shot back. "I don't believe I can defeat you with this…"

Looking into her flashing blue-black eyes, and pouting, similar shaped face, Jack at last realized who she was, and heard a familiar, complaining little female voice in the back of his head. "…Meagan?" he slowly guessed, incredulously.

"…We can defeat you with _this_!" a second, deeper, more hardened female voice yelled from above. Ultimate Master Jack looked casually up behind him at the source of the sound. A second blonde woman, this one a bit older, and in a shimmering cat suit, came flying downwards from a hatch in the ceiling, extending a foot in a karate kick.

"Ashley?" Jack guessed again, completely on target.

The older Ashley, still Katnappe, came flying down, but the future Jack simply held out his staff, preventing her foot from slamming into him. "Aaaugh!" she screamed as he proceeded to toss her to the ground from the end of his staff.

Meagan immediately activated a HeliPack strapped onto her back, and desperately tried to fly away. Unfortunately, she didn't really know how to control the device, and couldn't fly away in time.

The Ultimate Master thrust out an arm, ordering the palace Facist patrol to capture Katnappe. She had no face paint, though Jack hadn't noticed it before. The black-and-white men came and swarmed upon the fallen catwoman imposter, streaming from every door in the throne room.

Meagan, from up in the sky, heard hers screams, and finally gained control of the HeliPack, whooshing downward through the air, trying to save her new partner. Just then, the Facists surrounding her reached up, capturing Meagan as well. And there was himself…his future self, standing on his lofty perch, smirking satisfactorily at it all.

The runny vision began to merge and change, in a backdrop of white and black before Jack's eyes. The swirling colors once again morphed into new things, rearranging and setting up the memory scene. Meagan and Ashley were before him again, except this time they were sitting inside a metal chamber, dressed in tattered, peasant clothes, even Ashley, now out of her snazzy cat suit.

"I'm sorry…" Meagan softly spoke up, wiping a tear from her eye. "I shouldn't have tried to take off like that so soon…"

"No, no," Ashley retaliated. "It's my fault. I should have seen that staff trick coming… I've gotten a bit rusty over the years… And remember how it used to be…we were always the ones in control…"

"I don't want control…" Meagan replied, her voice trembling. "I just…want to live and be myself… But that's impossible." She slowly slid across the smooth metallic floor and wrapped her arms around Ashley. It was strange to see the two grown women acting this way, but they had a very good reason. "I'm afraid…"

"Don't worry," Ashley assured her younger friend. "We're always together. As much as we used to deceive everyone…I always told everyone that I was a "friend of the family."

"That's right," Meagan agreed, looking a little upwards, and straight into the pointy flame jet on the side of the wall. "We're the Mustards sisters…"

And slowly, together, they began to chant, "Mustards sisters, come together, akin to the grand descendants, Mustards assistance, come together…eternal power, united forever…"

_Mustards…? _Jack asked himself. _So, all this time, Ashley was really Meagan's sister…and my cousin?! They're my aunt's children…the Mustards…_ Just as he realized it, Meagan and Ashley clutched each other, as the metal wall of their little chamber slid into place… Jack then realized what was happening.

_No…no, not again… _As he thought about the slow, agonizing death again, the cool, protective aura of the Vase of Viscous Visions suddenly disappeared, and he found himself back inside the dark reality of the room inside the Hill Palace.

_Again…_ he slowly acknowledged. _Again, I painfully slaughtered the ones closest to me…first, my father, and then my cousins… I never really liked either of them…but I never hated them _that_ much…_ He looked sadly up from the new mysterious Shen-Gong-Wu, and at last snapping out of his trance, he again realized that he needed to get back to saving Julie.

Jack, though slightly shaken from the experience, said, "Shroud of Shadows!" and draped it back over his shoulders. At last, after emerging from the darkened Shen-Gong-Wu storage room, he believed he was headed in the right direction again.

As he flew down the halls, he noticed a few flaming torches on the wall. Perhaps he should grab one of the torches out of its holder, so he would have something to defend himself with. That idea was quickly shot down, when he realized that a floating torch would be a lot more suspicious than a door moving on its own. In order to take the torch with him, he'd have to remove the Shroud of Shadows and put it back on again, with the torch in his hand. It would take too much time to find a secure place where he wouldn't be seen or heard, so he could take the Shen-Gong-Wu off and then not he heard when he said "Shroud of Shadows" once again. That meant he'd have to go in there defenseless. He'd have to only trust his bare abilities…which were altogether nonexistent.

At last, Jack arrived at the flickering red scanning beam, the barrier between the dull, dead world of civilization, and the everlasting extravagance of his. This hadn't occurred to him in his frantic struggle to save his daughter. How would he ever be able to get past that barrier without being detected by the Palace guards, and being thrown back to the Facists? The Shroud of Shadows wouldn't be enough, since his mass would still be detected.

Remembering the other time when Julie rushed up to save Kimiko, he crouched down and examined the device more closely. There had been some slot she'd thrown a card into, right? At last, he noticed the slot, and noticed that the card was actually still wedged inside of it.

Jack grabbed the thin edge of the object and yanked it from its tight position. The laminated cardboard snapped when it finally popped out. When he got a look at what was printed on it, a laugh welled up in his chest, while another chill started in a nearby area. It was a simple playing card. A Jack of Hearts. _Coincidence_, he quickly brushed it off, _it's not my fault my name is so darn common. _He quickly tried inserting the card again to deactivate the sensors. Thankfully his attempt worked, and the red, flame-like barrier dissolved into the air.

With no more thoughts on the subject, Jack barreled up the long spiral staircase. He tried to focus entirely on the rescue ahead of him. He'd need some strategic planning if he even hoped to be able to save his daughter from his own clutches. The problem was, he found himself strangely unable to think of this, and all he kept repeating in his mind was a familiar children's nursery rhyme.

_"Jack and Jill went up the Hill/ To fetch a pail of water/ Jack fell down and broke his crown/ And Jill came tumbling after." _He tried to shake this out of his head, knowing that this had nothing to do with the conflict ahead, but in fact, it had everything to do with it.

There was no way to stop the golden halls from appearing now. Their grand magnificence opened out from nowhere, and Jack suddenly felt out of breath, though he hadn't before. It had taken a lot of effort to get here with no HeliPack to aid him.

As soon as his presence was detected, his future turned and stared him, balefully in the face. "How _dare _you…" future Jack responded, in a voice that reminded him deeply of his own.

Julie, standing not far in front of him, hopefully jerked her body around. She was a bit ragged herself, bits of her dress torn off, and her normally smooth hair frazzled. But the smile that appeared on her true, peachy face overlooked any of her appearance's miniscule flaws. "…Jack?!" she cried, and it was a sound like the trumpet of angels.

"That's right," Jack at last managed to say, halfway trying to buy himself some time before the brawl truly began. "I'm still here. I've always still been here. Julie, I won't let you die just for being who you are. …I realized that it's okay to do that now."

"Oh really?" future Jack spoke up, stepping a little backwards and crossing his arms, in a superior fashion. "I've always been who I am, too. _This _is who I am!" The king suddenly and unexpectedly released a blast of dark power from his extended hand. The attack zoomed mercilessly towards Julie.

The young teenage girl shrieked as the power slammed full force into the front of her body. The Palace's Facist regime had obviously tied up her arms and legs, allowing her to stand, but do nothing more.

Jack looked down at her crumpled body in sympathy and appall. His gaze then fell back upon his future physical appearance. "_Why_?" he slowly asked the different ideals of his future. "Why do you want to kill your own daughter so badly? I know you want a son, and consider her useless to you…but she's a part of you; she's just like you!"

"She is nothing like me," future Jack gravely responded. "I made sure of that a long time ago. She is much more than what she appears, and I am only a simple mentor to the almighty power of her lineage. When she realizes this, perhaps a little switcheroo can be arranged…"

Jack furrowed his thick eyebrows. "You know, sometimes I just don't understand myself."

"Oooh, good one," the Ultimate Master said, sarcastically. He moved closer and prepared to attack the helpless girl once again.

Jack bravely stepped out in front of Julie, without even knowing why at first. If he had no weapons, and no methods of fighting…he could always use his own life, right?

"No…" Julie tried to explain, reaching at his ankles from her position on the carpeted floor. "Jack, don't…you don't really know what you're doing…"

"I know exactly what I'm doing," Jack retaliated, glancing back down at her. "Don't argue with someone who's tying to save your life." Julie looked a bit sad and afraid, but couldn't stop him from trying to save her.

"Get out of the way," Ultimate Master Jack snarled, building the ball of dark power within his hands.

"I'm not moving," Jack firmly decided.

His future counterpart shook his head, disgustedly. "This can't be true. I think I know myself pretty well, and I would never really do something like this. Do you realize that you're about to die?"

Jack gritted his teeth and stared himself straight in the face. "Yes. Even if I die, I have power. I can go on. It looks like I'm not entirely useless after all, because even if I can't do anything, I can still save a life, and make the biggest impact anyone could ever make…"

"Fine, fine," the Ultimate Master replied, flipping the enormous black bubble, casually around in his hands. "You want to die? I always wanted to destroy my past, anyway. I loathe my past life…"

"Jack…" Julie softly spoke up, her light, chirpy voice pleading for his life. "Don't do this…"

But Jack disregarded her words. He needed to save her. If he died, she might be born to a different man in the future, but at least she would have a chance to live past the age of thirteen. _Maybe…_ he slowly realized. _This is what I came here to do…_

At that critical moment, Ultimate Master Jack finally released his concentration of evil energy, and as the flickering dark material grew closer and closer, Jack began to see things again, the same as he had seen Julie's face before venturing into this dreaded chamber.

The refined face of Mr. Spicer appeared first, in its present form, giving him a familiar lecture. "No. You must fight harder against this force than you have ever fought before. Do not let it get out! Stop it with all your might!"

Then, a different time melted into existence within his mind. "You must never use your powers. Those are the destructive powers of our ancestors, and will one day destroy the world…"

Jack concentrated with everything he had to block out these feelings. His body began to tremble as a dark aura began to grow around him.

Then, there was his father a second time, only the sickly, dilapidated one he knew from the Facist's camp. "How could I not have realized my own forthcomings! What I have been fostering this entire time… To feed the bank of my own destruction!"

That dreadful "compassion" feeling surged into him again, as the flames once again danced, threateningly around his body.

Next, visions of Kimiko's dull, zombie-like stare and the other Xiaolin Jesters… The aura grew a bit stronger. The Jack-bots and their understanding of his situation…his creations, helping their creator… At last, Julie appeared again, her face smiling and streaked with tears. "We don't have to keep in hiding…anymore…" _" I__ will carry on. I have a purpose here…"_

The visions of the Mustards sisters, clutching each other desperately, knowing that death was inevitable as soon as the workers closed their doors…that heart-wrenching scream… A few tears broke from Jack's eyelids and slipped down his speckled cheeks from the raging battle of the opposing wills.

"Go on," Ulimate Master Jack's voice said from within. "What am I?"

"You're…evil…" Jack slowly whispered to himself, finally coming to terms with his own identity. "I…don't want all of this to happen. I don't…want to be you. I don't…want…to be…evil."

At last, a different, unfamiliar voice resounded from out of the plain air. "There are five eternal forces, that each reflect their own characteristics… This one reflexive, volatile, indecisive, and easily molded. If its assistance be necessary, it will rise up in our favor… Its main power…is the power to continue on for as long as it wishes. To move on…"

Jack's tear-streaked cheeks at last lifted, his now glassy vermillion eyes sparkling as they embraced this beautiful, unidentifiable aura. _No…it took a long time to figure it out, but…I do have power. I have the power to change this… I must change this…for the world…and everyone living it. Dad, the Mustards, Dojo, Kimiko, Julie…_

At last, Jack broke through all the resistance, breaking into the atmosphere as if releasing a thousand pounds from his shoulders. Everything felt back to normal now…he could make it normal. As his own black matter continued to zoom towards him, his lips began stumbling themselves along, without his aid or consent.

"Mmmm…" Closer now…flashes of people's faces, people's lives were whirling through Jack's mind…he had to stop this… "Mmmm-mme…muhhh…"

At last, Jack's trembling body flew up, and formed itself into a perfect position, one hand extended out to the side, and another bent inwards towards his chest. As if in agony with himself and the world around him, the word at last burst from his mouth, from his body, and from his soul, all at the same time. "…METAL!!!"

Julie, still lying against the fuzzy red carpet, struggled upwards to get a look at this amazing phenomenon.

A sparkling backdrop of a sheet of silvery metal sprang up behind Jack, a different shaded yin-yang symbol etched into its center. Giant pointy spears of metal burst from the ground, and with surprising force, drove Ultimate Master Jack's amoeba of dark energy back at its creator.

The surprised dictator jumped back out of the way. He looked almost…afraid, for a moment, and then snapped back into his usual sinister sneer. "It doesn't matter!" he yelled, partly to himself. "This is a different world, a different dimension. Whatever happens here will not always be true in other worlds…"

Julie, stunned and inspired behind him, at last managed to summon her powers. "Comet Blaze, Meltdown!" she yelled, and the ropes around her burst into ashes. She immediately broke into a run, kneeling worriedly next to Jack. "A-Are you…okay, Jack?" she slowly asked, nudging him upwards.

Jack panted and began to struggle to his knees again. "What…was that?" he rasped, eyes still wide.

Julie smiled as she took his hands and helped him up. "You attacked him," she explained, "And saved both our lives. I never would have guessed, but now I know where I got my powers from…" Jack blinked back at her in confusion, so she took a breath again to clarify. "You don't recognize yet…you're the fifth elemental Xiaolin warrior- the Dragon of Metal! That's how I got my powers; though "Meltdown" isn't an element, it's my Mom's fire powers mixed with your metal powers!"

Jack never got a chance for this new revelation to truly register in his mind, because his future self was at it again.

"Yes," Ultimate Master Jack admitted, throwing his long cape over his shoulder, dramatically. "I am…or was _supposed to be_ the legendary Dragon of Metal, but that is what enables me to do this!" He grabbed the Soul Scepter, glittering dangerously within his hands, and thrust it out in front of him, directly at Julie. She gave off a scream, and looked frantically around for an escape route. It was too late…

"Soul Scepter, Metal!!!" the world's ruler yelled, and the orb at its head began to light up.

Jack took a stance and once again tried to access his new powers, but things like this took time…which he had none of. He closed his eyes, and prepared for the end of the world, and slowly, a force gathered over his body, pulling at every point of his skin… Pretty soon, it would tear his soul from it, and trap it forever in the confined little red crystal…but somehow, he knew everything would be okay…and that he would still carry on…


	7. True Evil

Ditto.

Yeah…it's going to get freaky and crazy again, but you could tell that from the title, right? You might not really understand this madness, but this whole conflict does have some meaning to it. But, even better…chapter 8 is next! Whee! Sorry if you get confused this chapter, but you'll like the next one.

I want to thank everyone…for helping me break my review record! (throws confetti and hands everyone pieces of cake) 35 reviews! (my previous record was 32). About the powers thing…yeah, it's screwed up. I've actually never seen the first episode of XS, or even most of the first season, so that's why I have inaccuracies like that. Of course I could also excuse it that the Dragon of Metal powers _can_ be inherited, since they're much different and separate from the other four, which is explained in chapter 9… but, that still makes Julie a freak of nature anyway.

-

Chapter 7: True Evil

The wispy screen of reddish power was wrapping around both Jack and Julie, while at the same time, it felt as if something was trying to wrench their hearts out of their chests. _Is this what it's like to die? _Jack found himself wondering. _It's too early…I need to go back and change the world… I just found out that I'm the Dragon of Metal! …And now, I'm going to die…_

Suddenly, a different feeling began around him…it was the familiar feel of wind whipping around his body. At last, Jack decided to open his eyes, though a little afraid of what he might find in front of him.

The throne room was gone. He was sitting on the scaly back of Dojo, with Julie sitting, daintily behind him, her long, ripped, black-and-purple dress blowing in the wind along with her black hair.

"Wow…" she marveled to herself. "I'm really flying on the legendary guardian dragon's back! I didn't know he'd been freed…"

"You saved us?" Jack asked, astounded. He thought he'd remembered Dojo telling him that he'd wait for them at the bottom of the castle.

"Seems I came just in time," Dojo said, turning his head back to look at them. "The guards spotted me, but they're so slow, I was able to get away from them easily. Since I was stuck up in the air, I decided to float by the tower and see how you were doing. It's a good thing I did, huh?"

Julie's identical red eyes lit up, in surprise and delight. "You can _talk_?" she continued to gush at the large Chinese dragon.

That was when it hit Jack- suddenly Dojo was _talking _to him. There was no more thought-projection required. "So, suddenly you learned how to talk to humans again?" he commented, crossing his arms across his chest, suspiciously.

"No," Dojo replied, throwing a satisfied smile over at him. "I still can't talk to _humans_. But those with the sacred Xiaolin elemental powers can hear my voice. Everyone else just hears roaring…"

"Yeah, Jack's Metal," Julie told him, proudly, "And I'm the combined element power, Meltdown. Oh, that's right, I forgot to introduce myself." She bowed her head, politely, and held out her hand to the dragon. "Hello, I'm Grand Mistress Julienne Spicer. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I know," Dojo replied, nodding his head at her, since he couldn't shake her hand in the sky. "I've heard a lot about you at the prison next to the electric plant."

Julie frowned at this statement. "Yeah, the electric plant…that place is horrible. I'm glad someone got you out of there."

"Hello!" Jack called up to her. "_I _did!"

She looked surprised, and also a little hopeful. "Really?"

"Yup, and I also freed the other slaves there. I could have died, but somehow, I did."

"Your powers were first starting to emerge," Dojo explained. "That was what enabled me to project my thoughts to you earlier."

"You knew I was the Dragon of Metal all along, didn't you?" Jack retaliated, raising an eyebrow.

Dojo smiled, secretly and turned back to the front. "Oh, I've known for a long time. But it was fun watching you in denial of yourself." He chuckled a little to himself. As the thin, serpentine dragon sliced his way around the black, jagged castle, they began to see a congregation of black-and-white spotted people on the ground below.

"Those guards are still after you, huh?" Julie said, concernedly. She shaded her eyes against the wind and tried to see the men's armor markings to identify them.

"They're a Facist troop," Dojo answered for her. "It was the original palace guards who noticed me at first, but a bunch of Facists were sent out to try to restrain me with their Shen-Gong-Wu…" As he spoke about the following men, the peppered dots began to move together on the hard, concrete below.

"Now what are they doing?" Julie asked, as she pulled her whipping hair back to get a better view. Just as she leaned a little closer to one side of the dragon, a large destructive beam came shooting straight up at her. She squealed a little and slid back into position to get out of its way. "Well, that answers that question. It looks like they're trying to attack us!"

"That looked like the beam from the Eye of Dashi," Jack commented. "If these are the same palace Facists that came to get us, two of them have the Tangle Web Comb and the Silver Manta Ray, and the leader has Kimiko's power with the Star Hanabi."

"I don't think they're the same ones," Julie replied, carefully turning her wildly flapping head back towards him. "This is the west portion of the castle. And wouldn't they have tried to tie Dojo up with the Tangle Web Comb instead of attacking?"

While the criminal princess continued to try to explain, a second beam from the Eye of Dashi flashed across the air, with no anticipation. The yellow beam flew up from the side, and suddenly knocked Jack off the slippery reptile's back. He screamed and flailed in desperation as he thundered towards the ground.

"No, Jack!" Julie cried, scrambling dangerously close to Dojo's neck and looking down. "C'mon!" she yelled into the dragon's nearby ear. "Don't just hover there! We've got to save!"

Dojo was a bit apprehensive, since he knew if he flew any closer the Facist congregation, they'd probably catch him, but it was part of his job to keep his Xiaolin Warriors safe. As the mighty dragon whooshed down among the masked harbingers of doom, he looked to the right to see that unfortunately, he was too late. Jack's black-coated body was still falling, and before the jet-streamed creature could zoom over, it slammed into the waiting arms of the most decorated Facist in the crowd.

Julie's pink lips fell open. "…Oh, no… Now what do we do?" Her thin, arching eyebrows, resembling Kimiko's Japanese ones scrunched up in worry.

Just then, a separate follower from down below held up a golden, four-pronged item on a chain, calling "Eye of Dashi, Wind!"

Dojo barely maneuvered out of the way, trembling with stressful action. "We run!" he yelled, turning and fleeing from the bombardment of Shen-Gong-Wu attacks that followed.

"What are you doing!" Julie scolded him. "You can't just leave Jack there! They'll take him back to the power plant… Actually, with all the crimes he's committed now, they'll probably just kill him!"

"Don't worry so much," Dojo advised her, grinning back at the nervous princess. "He's got powers to fend them off. We'll come back in few minutes when they're not expecting us."

Julie scowled, not much satisfied with this plan, but she was obliged to follow the orders of the powerful temple guardian and continued to hang tight to his neck as they wound off around the Hill Palace.

-

Meanwhile, on the similarly speckled concrete ground outside of the Hill Palace, the conflict was playing out between the captive and the captors. As soon as he had landed, Jack had jumped out of the Western Section Facist leader's hands, taking a position and trying to look threatening, even though he couldn't figure out how to access his powers again. He could probably just yell "Metal" again, he thought, but the feeling wasn't the same; he couldn't reproduce the same feelings he'd had when he'd first attacked.

Now, the Facists were sneaking up on him, attempting to capture him again. These ones were very different…they were the Wind Team, and their leader seemed much more silent and deadly then the Fire Team leader. The tall, black-and-white men surrounded Jack like pawns on a chessboard, blocking out all of his potential exits.

He looked up at the unusual masks they all wore. It was strange how the Facists and all of the other guards, for that matter, wore these helmets and masks to hide their identities.

Getting a flash of inspiration, Jack jumped up towards the leader's face, and somehow managed to quickly wrench the checkered helmet from his head. Jack gasped as a black mane tumbled out from underneath. He nearly fainted when he got a look at the face and flickering orange eye that accompanied it. "Chase…_Young_!" he cried. He didn't know that his power extended over even his own super-villain idol.

Chase, as all the other Facists did in case their helmets came off, also has the usual Jack face paint. "My name is General 1," Chase replied in a grave tone. "Chase Young…is a thing of the past. I _used_ to be Chase Young…" That was when he noticed a few familiar nuances in Jack's face and clothing. "…And all that time I was Chase Young, I never could tell… It was impossible to guess…" He unexpectedly reached over, squeezing Jack around the neck and pulling him up to his face in his rage. "…And all that time…I had the very _key_ within my grasp!"

Jack shuddered and struggled in the man's hand. At last, Chase's Facist partners persuaded him to let go. Jack tumbled back to the cold concrete palace paving and looked concernedly back up at Chase. "Why didn't I…um _he_ just give you Dojo so that you could complete your potion?" he asked.

"Because then I would outlive him, dummy!" Chase objected. "He doesn't want _me_ to take over after he dies, he wants his son to. But he's got no son anyway! Ha!"

The other Facists rushed over worriedly, but Jack continued to question the evil monk, rigorously. "But…but we could've shared the potion and both lived forever…"

"In the world of evil geniuses," Chase explained. "There is no such concept as 'sharing."

Jack blinked, and slowly began to lift back to his feet. "But…but you were my _idol_…" he tried to object. There was no reason to. What was done was done. Or what _will be _done…

"Aw, well, I'm actually pretty lucky," Chase continued, picking up his helmet and placing it over his head again, where it belonged. "It's not so bad being a Facist. Never thought I'd be grateful to have a Shen-Gong-Wu…"

Jack stared, as the former evil master stepped back to activate his token Shen-Gong-Wu. "C'mon, guys," he called to his troops. "We're going to leave this one for now. He's a special case. Monsoon Sandals!"

The rest of the Facists scurried off underneath as Chase grew about twenty feet and began to hop away on his long, springy legs.

Jack just continued to gape for an additional five minutes. These had been the exact same magical items he'd offered to Chase the first time they'd met, to which he replied, "I don't need Shen-Gong-Wu." To see the once idealistic villain reduced to the lowly job of a guard with a magical item… It wasn't as strong an example as his father and the Mustards sisters being burned, but still it extended on the realization that Jack's choices could affect _everyone_.

Suddenly, he heard a familiar female voice behind him. "Hello! Are you just going to stand there all day!" Julie was standing, primly on the neck of the giant green guardian dragon, one hand extended toward him. Dojo had landed on the ground after the Facists had retreated.

At last, Jack turned around and acknowledged their presence. "Oh…right…yeah…" He dazedly climbed back onto the dragon, though Julie glanced over at him with an odd, suspicious look.

"So…what happened?" she at last spoke up as Dojo began to lift into the air once again.

"One of the Facist guards used to be a really powerful super-villain," Jack started, trying to shake out of his slightly stupefied state. "It was kind of…weird to see him like that."

Julie simply frowned and turned her head back to the front, gripping the edge of Dojo's mane. "Well, I guess an even more powerful super-villain got the better of him."

Jack knew it wasn't his fault- he'd never done anything to lead to this in the present world, but somehow, just from her tone of voice, his daughter seemed angry at him. _Yeah_, he spontaneously thought, _all of this is my fault. Everything's always my fault…_

The atmosphere between the two family members fell uncomfortably silent. The only noises Jack could hear was the slapping of Dojo's adornments against the scales, and the wind pushing against his eardrums. Mindlessly, he reached up and pulled his goggles over his eyes, perhaps trying to protect his ears with their black rubber band. At that moment, Julie happened to turn around again, and her eyes widened for a moment when she got a look at him.

"What?" Jack said when he noticed her staring at him.

"Ah…sorry. I've never seen you with those goggles on, that's all. They look weird with those swirls on the lenses. How can you see out of them, anyway?"

Jack just shrugged his bony shoulders. "Don't know, actually. I guess the paint is see-through from the inside…"

"Where'd you get them in the first place?"

"My dad. Where else? …Well, actually, I bought this coat for myself, and since I knew he wouldn't let me keep it, I had to package it up, and address it to me to make it look like it had come in the mail from my grandma."

Julie couldn't help giggling a bit, as much as she tried to hold it back. "Really? Did you send it to yourself?"

"Yup," Jack replied, grinning a little with her. "I actually sent it through the mail back to my house. It's fun getting gifts from yourself. That way you know you'll like it!"

Julie giggled a little again. "That's right," she said, getting back to her serious self again. "I forgot how…_different_ you are. It's scary how different you are from Dad…even though you _are_ Dad… It's almost like you became a totally different person."

At last, Dojo was approaching the long, menacing black towers again, and turned back around to verify their destination. "So, where to, my new Dragons?"

Julie suggestively looked off into the sunset, obviously wishing to get away from this place at all costs, but Jack lifted his goggles back up to contradict her. "No. I tried that already. There's no use trying to run away. I rule this planet, remember? Wherever you go, you can't escape from me."

Julie drooped, disappointedly again. "So…what can we do?"

Jack gritted his teeth. This was taking a big risk, especially when he wasn't sure of how his new Dragon of Metal powers worked yet, but it was the only thing he could think of to do now. "We go back to the throne room…and take care of the root of the problem!"

Julie covered her mouth, halfway from shock and halfway from nervousness. "But…we can't _kill_ him. That would kill you, wouldn't it?"

Jack averted his gaze back down to the dragon scales below him, thoughtfully. "Well…" he proposed. "Not necessarily. This is the future. Well, it is to me. If I kill my future self, I'd still be alive in the present. In that sense, I have an advantage. If he kills me, that would kill him, since I'm his past self. …It might actually kill _you_; you might never be born."

"I don't like the sound of this," Julie disagreed. "There are too many risks in it… We could all end up dying!"

"I think we'll be okay," Jack tried to reassure her. "We've got powers, haven't we?"

"Yes, but mine aren't very strong, and you just got yours and don't really know how to use them yet…"

Before she continued trying to dissuade him, he slipped closer to Dojo's head, and at last gave the command. "Okay. We're going back up to the throne room. It's time to settle this."

Dojo nodded, his long mustache tentacles bouncing, and swerved to the right to spiral towards the topmost tower once again.

Julie shivered, looking into the foreboding shadows of the giant palace. She'd been in that terrifying shadow her entire life, and now suddenly thrust out of it, she was reluctant to slip back in.

When Dojo flew by the twisted, darkened windows of the tower, they noticed that Ultimate Master Jack hadn't been just sitting around since they'd been rescued. They saw the evil dictator's violet lined cape fluttering around his armored body as he rushed madly around the room, securing fasteners on the walls.

"What's he doing?" Jack asked, squinting to get a better look. "Or what am _I _doing?"

"I don't know," Julie truthfully answered. "I've never seen him this active before. Usually, he doesn't even walk around the room."

"Okay," Dojo whispered back to the two of them. "Now what? You ready to crash in?"

Jack took a deep breath, and he could sense Julie on his side, doing the same. "Well…here we go. …We're ready!"

With that declaration, the long dragon shot forward like an arrow, building speed, until he turned around and crashed through the glass window. Jack and Julie quickly jumped off to the plush red carpet, just before their transportation slammed into the wall on the other side. A couple of bricks came loose in the process and went clattering to the floor in a duty pile.

Ultimate Master Jack immediately noticed, turning around and smirking at them. It was actually a pretty common sight, and Jack could almost recognize his own expression, but suddenly he had a terrible urge to just knock that stupid grin off his own face.

"Oh, I knew you two pesky troublemakers would show up again," the ruler said, in a slightly excited tone.

"He's got something up his sleeve," Julie whispered over to Jack. "He probably started setting a bunch of traps around the room once he saw us coming."

Jack gritted his teeth in disgust. "Well, he's not going to even have a chance to activate them! Metal!" He held out his arms in a random position, unsure of how exactly he'd been posed when he'd first attacked. Nothing happened, once again.

His future self laughed at him. "Ha! You can't even _use _your Xiaolin powers. That shows how 'powerful' you are with them. In that pitiful form, you don't stand a chance. Why don't you listen to yourself and give it up?"

"That's exactly what I did," Jack retorted, narrowing his red eyes. "Only in a better sense."

"Well, enough dawdling," the ultimate master decided, holding up a small device with a button. "Let's cut to the chase, shall we?"

Julie gave off a small gasp, and immediately held up her arms, attempting to attack him and knock the button out of his hand. "Comet Blaze, Meltdown!" The swirl appeared under her feet again, and a flaming chunk of metal went hurling towards the ultimate master. The fireball just barely missed his hand and went whizzing past his head. Julie gaped and started to try again, but by then, it was too late. He pushed the little blue button down into its electrical holder.

Jack turned away from the scene and waited for something to explode, but nothing seemed that unstable. Then, when he looked back again, he looked straight at the walls…and they looked different somehow. Julie glanced around, in both fascination and fear.

The walls were collapsing, but they seemed to be…lifting up into the sky. At last, the walls tucked underneath themselves, and they were now standing on a huge platform in the middle of the sky. The swirling, mud-colored clouds flew across their perch, and suddenly, a new fear sprang up in Jack's chest.

_Oh, my God...I'm thousands of feet up in the air…with no HeliPack! _He'd been able to survive long falls before, but this one he knew he wouldn't be able to walk away from. This tower was taller even than the Empire State Building! _Now what have I gotten myself into…_

The Ultimate Master casually flicked another button on the control panel in his hands, and the rest of the palace exploded in a forest of flames and debris. Jack immediately wrenched his head from the horrific sight, in case a little more than that came flying out of the ruins. Everyone inside the castle had just been destroyed, including the Xiaolin Warriors, the Facists, and Chase Young… He had done it so casually, as if he were simply playing a video game, and not murdering his workers.

For a moment, Jack felt terrible, knowing that he had just killed Kimiko, but turned back to his future self, furious with his actions. "Why did you do that!" he cried. "Now your whole castle is destroyed!"

"I can always have the people build me another one. They are my slaves, after all," Ultimate Master Jack answered, as if it should be obvious. "I was getting sick and tired of that old castle anyway. Maybe this time I'll build a gigantic mansion, and redo the décor."

"What about your 'plan' to get yourself a son?" Jack objected. "You just killed Kimiko now. Unless you plan on getting some other girl…"

"I don't need a son," the ultimate master replied. "I've got everything I ever needed right here!" He discreetly snuck a glance over at the unconscious Dojo, his coils teetering on the edge of the platform.

Julie panicked and ran over to haul him the rest of the way on. Ultimate Master Jack laughed at her feeble attempt, but his former self continued to stare, discontentedly at him.

"You're not killing him just so you can live forever and continue to make everyone else miserable for eternity. Just what are you planning on doing about _us_, huh?"

At that statement, the ultimate master's face erupted into a baleful sneer again. "So glad you asked… Soul Scepter, Metal!"

Jack immediately put up his arms in a desperate attempt to shield himself from the Shen-Gong-Wu's soul-snatching red beam, but this time it wasn't aimed in his direction. An earsplitting shriek shot through the air, as the beam flashed by Jack's cheek…and straight into the body of his future daughter. "Julie!" he exclaimed, hurrying to the teenage girl's side.

By that time, it was too late. Julie lied in a rumpled, torn, black heap against the carpeted platform. She looked to be unconscious, but Jack couldn't tell for sure. He forced her body on its back and leaned down against her shoulders, repeatedly calling her name. "Julie! Julie! Can you hear me! Are you okay! Open your eyes, Julie!"

"Open your eyes, Julie," the ultimate master echoed from his position at the end of the platform. Instantly, the girl's eyelids snapped open, and Jack jumped back when he got a look at those dark voids. The eyes are the windows to the soul…and now, the windows showed nothing. He'd successfully captured her soul.

Jack looked over to his own likeness, who was grinning, crazily and admiring the swirling wisps of power inside the red crystal of the Soul Scepter. He stepped aside from the mindless girl to face himself. The two Jacks were face-to-face now, confronting each other…confronting _themselves. _

"What are you going to do now?" Jack finally spoke up. "Kill me?" This strange, enlightening statement suddenly made him realize something, and the more he thought about it, the more he drew power from it. "Yeah. Kill me. Go on, I dare you. You can't kill me. You like to watch me suffer, but you can't kill me, because then you would die. That makes me immune to your power. You can't take away my soul either, because that would be getting rid of your own spirit."

"Oh, yes I can," the ultimate master objected, another one of those sinister smiles appearing on his face- the kind that seemed to taunt "I know something you don't know." "Because your spirit is a lot different from my spirit. We may be the same person, but we're two separate personalities."

"I can agree with you on that," Jack finally replied, staring into the cloudy abyss of the Soul Scepter. Somewhere in that little globe was Julie's spirit, along with the Xiaolin "jesters'". All he had to do was wrangle it away from himself and release that wisp back into her body. The problem was…how was he supposed to do _that_? He had no Shen-Gong-Wu, no Jack-bots, no working powers…no HeliPack. Somehow, he though he remembered thinking about this before.

_No. That's right. I don't need all that stuff… I can do this myself. _A sudden force gripped Jack's body, and in that instant, he knew what he needed to do, and how to do it. Although he wasn't exactly sure of what he was doing, when the Ultimate Master took his first stride forward, he immediately launched his attack.

A mere second later, Jack found himself careening through the air, without the aid of the Jet Bootsu, the Mantis Flip Coin, or any of the various flying Shen-Gong-Wu. He reached down in desperation, and the smooth, cool surface of some metal object pressed into his palm. Finally, his feet slammed against a carpeted surface, and he wavered a bit, getting his bearings again. Something heavy weighed down against his hands, and finally glancing down, Jack noticed, to his awe that he was holding the familiar, golden, dangerous item…the Soul Scepter! But how had he…?

His future self turned and raised a bushy eyebrow at him. "Oh…quite clever. You're already building _their_ strategies, aren't you? Flipping over me like that to grab the scepter… But don't think I wasn't anticipating it!"

Jack stared back down at the staff, and into the swirling, ghostly world of its red orb. _Flipping over me like that…_ He had just successfully pulled off an acrobatic flip over his future self's head, grabbing the scepter on the way over. _I guess I've learned a thing or two from those Xiaolin twerps_, he slowly realized.

Strangely enough, the ultimate master didn't even make a move to stop him as he rushed over past his fluttering cape, to kneel beside the soulless Julienne. Jack had no idea how to take Julie's spirit back out of the scepter and put it into her body, but simply leaned in over her body, hoping that would somehow force the spirit back into her.

As he concentrated on the staff and its abilities, imagining it releasing Julie's spirit, a warm, golden glow began to emanate from the tip. This gold sheen bathed the two of them in a bright, almost holy light. Since Jack had his eyes closed in concentration, he didn't see when a cloudy mist rolled through the glass of the red ball, and continued down through Julie's chest. Finally, when the gold screen popped out of existence, and everything was once again settled, Jack opened his eyes, to see Julie's clear, red ones staring back at him.

"…Huh?" she slowly asked. "Jack? What happened? Did I pass out?"

"I'll tell you later," Jack hurriedly replied, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the man he would become. Surprisingly, the ultimate master hadn't even objected to any of these past few events…but, still he was standing there, suspiciously, with that secretive smile curling his thin lips.

"C'mon, get up," Jack said, turning back to his future daughter. "We're at the top of the Hill Palace on a platform! We're trying to overthrow your father, remember? He's not gone yet! We've got a battle to fight!"

Julie didn't seem to be moving much. She stayed seated on the carpeted rug as much as Jack tugged at her long sleeves and tried to persuade her to get up and resume fighting. "I…I don't know," she finally replied, placing a small, pale hand on the side of her head and gently shaking it. "It's…weird. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to go on by yourself. I just…I don't feel well at all…"

Jack had no idea how it must feel to have your soul wrenched from your body, and then shoved back in again, so he excused her from the fight, and stood back up again to face his future self.

Ultimate Master Jack crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows at him, and it made him shiver to notice how alike they were.

"Metal!" Jack commanded, suddenly remembering the positions of his elemental attack. Thankfully, the bright silvery shimmer of the yin-yang plate sprang up again, behind him, and the sharp metal points tore through the rocky top layer of the platform.

"That reminds me," the ultimate master casually spoke up, jumping out of the way of the spikes. "You wanted to know how I took over the world earlier. I told you, the Soul Scepter and murder…but I left out one tiny little detail…"

Jack stepped back out of attack pose, and his face scrunched into a scowl, disgusted with his own bragging and giant ego. "I really don't need to know how you took over the world, because I'm not going to take over the world. Not if _this _is what will happen."

"Oh, but don't you need to know, so that you can _prevent _it from happening? This world doesn't just exist here, and sprang out of nowhere…it gradually began. And it all began with you. It all began _there_. In fact, you might not even know how far down this path you already are."

"Shut up!" Jack yelled back at himself, determined to drive out anything his future told him. "It doesn't necessarily have to be this way."

His future self raised his eyebrows once again. "Oh, really? Well, I'd like to see how exactly you react to this thought… I'll show you the _real_ reason I was able to finally conquer the planet." With that, the ultimate master ripped off his long black-and-purple cape, and unbuttoned the top of his black, highly adorned jacket.

"What the…" Jack commented when he got a look at what was underneath. "Wh-why would I…?" He just couldn't comprehend the reasons for this revelation.

A large portion of future Jack's chest was entirely metal. He wasn't even human! The metallic shine of the iron plate blurred out and faded into a shining, dreamy memory, the pointed bursts of sunlight melting into the harsh, black, technological reality of home.

-

It was another one of those days, but this time, neither of the contradictory forces seemed to be prevailing.

_No. I can't keep doing this forever. I will never be able to do this…because of my own pathetic personality._

His hands trembled as he clutched the new, insertion device. He could be holding the key to his future…to his own success in his very paled hands. They desperately clutched the digital encoding. With just one shove, everything he had always strived for could be attained, right then and there. Yes…this was the only way he could attempt to further this plan of action. If this was the side to which everything was shifting, then it was time to eliminate the other force altogether. This was easy…just like the same old, familiar entity…just passing through. It was time.

With the last of his ancient salted droplets peppering his cheeks, Jack's flaming eyes instantly narrowed. Then, finally seizing the initiative, without even knowing what would happen, he said an instant farewell to his wretched world, sliced open the spot on his chest…and with trembling hands, dripping with blood, shoved the chip inside.

-

"What?" Jack slowly pronounced the word. He was back on the platform; at least he appeared to be. Suddenly, the Vase of Viscous Visions came floating up through the carpeted floor. "You were using that Shen-Gong-Wu?" he asked, raising his bushy eyebrows. "But you didn't say…"

"I don't need to say the items' stupid names," the Ultimate Master explained. "I own all of them. Though the troops use them, they're all mine."

"So I…made myself into a cyborg?"

"Not a _cyborg_!" the ultimate master explained. "I simply deleted my own emotions, my own personality. I exist for the sole purpose of bringing pain and destruction to the planet and its people. I'm evil."

Jack thought about this a while longer. "If you have no emotions, if you can't even feel happy or grateful, even from hurting others…then what is the point of living?"

"Someone's got to make them suffer," the Ultimate Master retaliated. "That is my job. I have to make them suffer."

"Why?" Jack shot back. "Why do they _have _to be punished!"

"Because they're people, aren't they? You said yourself one day that you hate all people. You hate _everyone_."

"…Not everyone…" he admitted, softly to himself. This certainly was the strangest argument he'd ever had with himself. Usually these kinds of arguments remained inside his head. But suddenly, it had become a verbal battle. The one problem with this rendition was that he couldn't make this opposing voice shut up.

"Think about it," his future insisted. "You've always dreamed of ruling the world- of being the most important person on the entire planet. That's the only way you'll ever get the respect you deserve. If you take away your own personality and emotions- take away all your sense of feeling, and finally you'll be respected. You'll never have to deal with those stupid forces that try to hold you back; you'll never again feel that petty pain and loneliness, isn't that your main goal?"

Jack's heart skipped a beat…because he knew that this man before him knew _everything_ about him. Who knew him better than himself? …And what he had been saying was exactly true. He gritted his teeth as he desperately tried to figure this all out. _I don't want to be alone for the rest of my life… I want to be appreciated. …Is this really the only way? To sacrifice my own personality…_

"Don't worry about being alone," the ultimate master spoke up again, almost soothingly. "You're never alone. Even in your present state, you may think of yourself as alone, but oh no, you are far from it."

Jack looked up, angrily at his future self. "How do you know if that's what I'm worrying about?"

"Dear boy," the man stated, taking a step towards him. "Of course I know what you're thinking. I'm you." He flashed a comforting smile down at him.

Jack blinked. "If you have no emotions, how come you're smiling?"

"I don't need emotions to smile, to frown, to laugh, or even cry. This amazing computer chip just makes me do these things when they're needed. You know, I think you've got a few of these things lying around in your world. Never realized their power until I used one on myself."

Jack froze. _The emotion chips I put into a few of my new Jack-bots. It doesn't really make them feel emotions, but causes them to smile, laugh, frown, or cry in response to their surroundings… If I used one on _myself,_would itmake me do the same…_

"Do you see the light now?" the ultimate master continued, glancing straight into his eyes. They were the clear, shining red of normal, organic people, rather than the plain, dry ones of his former robot counterpart. He was still human- just with no feelings, no thoughts of his own- the chip told him everything that needed to be done. "But enough about me," the ultimate master at last decided, pointing his long, caped hand away into the distance. "It's time you met your little friend. You've known her for a very long time indeed, but now she will once again reveal herself to you."

As the ultimate master continued to ramble about future stuff only he could understand, something was happening in the distance. Julie had stood up again, staring up into the sky. She suddenly screamed and held her face.

"_Julie_!" Jack cried, turning his head and rushing over to her side. "What happened? What did he do to you?"

"I…I don't know…" Julie stuttered. She opened her red eyes wide and blinked a few times. "It felt like there was something inside of me, and it was trying to take over…"

Jack shivered as she told him this. "What was it? Does it have something to do with your soul being taken out and put back in?"

Julie glanced slowly back at him. Her face looked strangely dark, as if there were some kind of dark ink lurking beneath her skin. "Ooooh…" she slowly said, her voice becoming scratchy and garbled. "I'm glad to see you've still got my symbols…"

Suddenly, the red pupils of Julie's eyes morphed for a moment into small, purple spirals. They changed back just as quickly, and her normal voice screamed out again as she gripped tightly to her torso.

"What's happening?" Jack cried. "You tell me what's going on!" he yelled over to his future self, who was grinning, maniacally to the sidelines. "What's wrong with Julie?"

"You ought to rephrase that question," the ultimate master responded. "Because I can just tell you- there's nothing wrong with Julie. She might feel like there's something wrong, but that's because she hasn't known about this like I have…"

As the future continued to brag at him, something began to form in the air behind him. It was the swirling, pinkish cloud of a connection between two different worlds- the portal back to the present!

This reappearance sent a shock of hope through Jack's soul…but he couldn't leave Julie's side. Something strange was happening to his innocent future daughter, and he had to be there for her. Her entire body was trembling, sometimes pieces of it flashing that horrible inky grey color.

"That staff in your hands not only has the power to take spirits and give their bodies to me," the ultimate master continued, "But it can also take a spirit…and mix it with someone else's. Haven't you ever wondered where she went in this world? She has to still be in existence, right? That was the only advantage I could get out of having a daughter… I could mix her spirit with Wuya's, and I could take her powers afterwards! All this time, there was only one thing more powerful than me- and that was Wuya, but now I have a way to conquer even the world's most powerful Heylin witch! And with that stupid dragon and Chase's potion, I'll be immortal!" And at that moment, future Jack's emotion chip told him to break out in evil laughter, the most spiteful, demonic laugh his throat had ever produced.

Jack desperately turned to Julie at his side. Was that _true_? Was she really…turning into Wuya? Wuya was trying to merge with her body, but the girl was putting up a good fight, driving the evil witch from complete control.

"J-J-Jack?" she slowly managed to stutter.

"What?" Jack asked, snapping to attention in concern. He stared as Julie slowly pulled her hands away from her flickering face. Still, even as her skin morphed around them, her eyes still remained ruby red.

"He wants…to use that staff on me…once I become a Heylin witch. You have to…get away. Keep him from getting a hold of it."

Jack glanced over at the swirling, psychedelic portal, hovering discreetly behind his future self's head. "But…I don't want to leave you," Jack insisted. "Especially when you're like this."

"Oh…don't worry," Julie slowly rasped forward. "Maybe…I'll see you sometime in your world…and it will be different… It all…starts…now…" Wuya almost had her now- the grey splotches were growing and becoming more solid on her face.

Jack first felt the fear inside him, and then the sadness. How could he do this to his own daughter? To use her only to obtain Wuya's powers? It was because his future self had no feelings. He had none of that "compassion" Dojo had told him about.

"You have to promise me…" Julie fought to tell him, her voice wavering as Wuya struggled to grasp that too. "…that you'll run. Run, Jack…" At last, the limitless powers of the evil Heylin witch burst through the girl's defensive barrier.

"RUN!" Julie shrieked, as her skin became entirely death grey, and her hands became long, sharp claws. Her eyes were the exact same wide, yellow-and-red spiraled bulbs as Jack's goggles and Wuya's ghostly eyes.

And at last, he complied. Hugging the sparkling Soul Scepter to his torn jacket and bony chest, Jack bolted from his position and targeted the swirling portal behind himself.

"Perfect," Ultimate Master Jack commented, producing a dark blast, which he charged up in his hands for a moment. "Come here, little boy. Bring me my new powers…"

Jack narrowed his eyes. "Get out of the way!" he at last yelled to his evil self, and when the man released his dark blast, a shining screen, like the one that had been around them earlier sprang up around him, deflecting the blast back to the carpeted platform. Jack simply jumped past the destruction and continued to make a beeline for the portal. He didn't think he'd ever run so fast in his life, except maybe at the Facist camp. The bright, mixing colors were just ahead of him. It would only be a few more minutes.

His future self and Julie-Wuya aimed their blasts at him, but they were too late now. The portal was actually floating a few feet away from the edge of the platform…but that wouldn't stop him now.

Disregarding the long drop it would be if he missed, Jack sprang from the edge of the platform, and clutching the Soul Scepter tightly to his body, felt as the air rushed around him. There were beautiful, pastel, shining colors all around him, and as he continued to hurtle through time and space, closed his eyes.

He'd finally run away from the evil of the future…and now his destiny was waiting for him wherever he landed. Jack closed his blazing red eyes and entrusted his life to this new force. Perhaps this one would not abandon him.


	8. Harsh Reality

Well, here it is. The return. If you wonder what happened to the scientist guy, well…I don't even know. There's one passage of this chapter that might seem a little familiar to you…like you've read it before. Yes, this is done on purpose. Sometimes I like to give my readers déjà vu. Here it goes! Oh, and in case you're wondering by the end of this, this is _not_ the last chapter! Nope, we've still got a few things to settle first…but that's for later.

40+ reviews! Never thought I'd see the day… Jadebell, that long dialogue review made me laugh! …And I'm really sorry! I forgot that some of you haven't seen season 2 yet! Yeah…Chase Young is a character from S2. Sorry I spoiled that, but at least I didn't spoil _everything_ about him! I'll try to delete all S2 references in the story from now on. Although, in this chapter, you'll hear about "Megan", I couldn't leave her out, because she's crucial to the "reflections" portion of this chapter. And there's something else later about Jack's "promise" that you might not get. My problem is, mostly all of the XS episodes I've seen have been the S2 ones. I'm a recent fan. Yes, I tried to mimic the nursery rhyme with this fic, though I stop after the first verse. In this chapter, it makes more sense to replace "Jill" with "Kimiko" and "pail of water" as "the Vase of Viscous Visions". Imagine if I tried that with other nursery rhymes…

EternalFluffy: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. Jack, jump over the candlestick! (points demandingly to a little candle in the middle of the room)

Jack: …Do I really have to?

EternalFluffy: Of course. Because I'm the author, and I command it!

Jack: You're trying to find another excuse to torture me. I thought you were my fan!

EternalFluffy: I am! I torture you because I _love_ you!

Others: (chanting) jump, jump, jump, jump!

Jack: (stares at the candle stick) (runs and leaps over it, but falls back on the other side and catches the seat of his pants on fire) AAAAUGH! (runs around, screaming like a little girl with his butt on fire)

EternalFluffy: (places her head in her hands in desperation)

Rai: (suddenly steps next to her) Idiot. Doesn't he realize he could've just flown over it?

EternalFluffy: Nah, if he'd tried that, I would've yelled at him. It's Jack _jump _over the candlestick, not Jack _fly _over the candlestick. (sprays Jack with a garden hose)

Rai: Gee, you're awful stringent

EternalFluffy: Well, I don't think this one _could _have a metaphorical meaning… Well maybe, "jump over" means "overcoming an obstacle" and "candlestick" could mean "holder of fire" or "Kimiko". That's it, it means "Jack gets over Kimiko". …I don't like this nursery rhyme.

Rai: Uh…how did you get _that_ out of…

Jack: (dripping wet and trying to fix his hair) She's insane! Insane, I tell you! Anyone who would spend a whole hour trying to get some deep meaning out of Mother Goose must have something wrong with them!

EF: uh…anyway…on with the chapter?

-

Chapter 8: Harsh Reality

With a clashing and suction sound, Jack finally felt his body crash against a hard, stone platform, and the force propelled him straight down the stairs of the machine. When he finally rolled to a stop at the base, he opened his eyes and gazed into the dark floor.

"Ugh…" Jack felt sick and lightheaded after a trip like that, so he stayed pressed against the floor for a few more minutes before attempting to rise from that position. He slowly pulled himself into a crouching pose, and dragged a heavy item up with him, without even noticing.

Then, his gaze fell upon the scientist's underground laboratory. He was in…Paris, right? It felt like ages since he'd seen this place. The man had vanished from the control panel, so some time had to have passed. Of course it had, Jack told himself. It had been so long… He'd spent months in that terrible labor camp. Speaking of that…

He reached up and felt his goggles. They were suddenly intact again. His hair stood up on end, like it was supposed to, his clothes were whole, except for the end of his coat, which was natural, and all of his injuries had healed. Looking into the shiny, reflecting surface of one of the machines, he also observed that his face paint was back in place. It was like none of it had even happened…

Jack stared at himself a little longer, and the more he stared, the more he began to look like that evil man from the future world…goatee, twisted smile, and all. _I promised Julie that things would be different when I saw her again… But I really don't have to worry about _that. _All that would never happen. I'd never put one of those emotion chips in _myself_. That's just crazy. I'd never use my daughter to get Wuya's powers. Ha. Whoever made up that stupid world must have been on something…_

Satisfied with this resolution, Jack turned around and began to skip, haughtily back out of the dark lab…but then he looked down. A long, glittering stick lied heavily against his palm. Its swirling red orb stared, smugly up at him, and Jack froze as he looked deep into its cloudy core. _"It all…starts…now…" "It all began with _you. _It all began _there_." _That world didn't just pop into existence… It was already starting. This whole horrible chain of events…it had all started when Jack had won the Xiaolin Showdown against Omi for this Soul Scepter.

He shivered as he stared down at the powerful, destructive Shen-Gong-Wu. For a moment, he thought he should just throw it into the sea, so he'd never be able to find it and use it to destroy the world, but a moment later, forced these thoughts from his head. _This is stupid_, he told himself. _If I decide that I'm not going to use it to destroy the world, I won't use it to destroy the world._

That affirmed, he clicked his HeliPack on and stepped out of the dark lab, squinting in the painfully bright sunlight. He had no idea how much time had passed, but after the flashing yellow splotches subsided, he could see his hovering bus-like vehicle floating in the distance. Surprisingly, none of the French people below had noticed the giant steel frame suspended in midair. However, they certainly noticed when a boy in the middle of their crowd suddenly took to the sky on a pair of mechanical "wings".

Jack yanked the door to the driver's seat open, and pulled himself back behind the rubbery wheel. He gently set the glittering Soul Scepter against the seat next to him, and fastened it with its own mini seat belt. At least that helped him feel like he had some company.

_Stop thinking like that, _he told himself. _As much of a nutcase that representation of the "future me" was, he did have a point. I'm not alone, I've got Wuya. And right now, I need to get this Soul Scepter thing back to her. I just won't ever use it in that way… But what if she tells me to? How can I explain it to her…? _Jack finally shook himself and started up the vehicle's engine again. _Never mind. I don't think anything like that will ever happen anyway… _And a few minutes later, he was flying off back to the comforting familiarity of the Asian landscape, and his old style mansion.

-

When Jack finally stepped back down into his world, shutting out the light of the "normal" world behind him, he was slightly surprised to find it completely empty.

"Wuya?" he called. "Hey, Wuuuu-yaaaa! I got a little present for you!" He expected the little masked witch to come zooming out of some drawer or portion of the wall or ceiling at any moment. Nothing. Everything was so deadly still and silent.

Jack stomped down the rest of the stairs and clanked the Soul Scepter onto his work table, just for the sake of making some noise. He should probably wait here until the evil sorceress got back from…wherever she had gone, he decided. She'd certainly see the powerful scepter the instant she got back and give him a hearty acclamation. It was strange how he did all of this- flying around in a hover car, battling for Shen-Gong-Wu, and making all these high-tech gadgets…just for the approval of a thousand-year-old evil witch.

_That's not all_, he tried to tell himself. _This is all practice for the day when I…_ Suddenly, Jack stopped his normal, everyday thoughts, and remembered the experience he'd just had. Normally the phrase he'd put after that was "rule the world"…but now, he wasn't too sure about that.

_…Yeah. _He slowly tried to affirm again. _I could still rule the world, just in a different way. Like…not by killing everyone. The spice of life, remember? _Now, that was even stranger than his original vein of thought. He hadn't recalled those phrases from his father's "Spicer family history" talks in years. Jack shook himself for the third time since coming back from that future world.

Things were finally back to the way they were supposed to be- the Xiaolin Warriors on one side, him on the other, tons of people all over the place, of different ethnicities, and generally free to look like whatever they wanted to look like, and say whatever they wanted. _If I grew up in a world like that, I'd probably kill myself, _Jack realized. As much as I hate this world, that one would be the worst thing imaginable!

_"Those horrible powers will one day destroy the world…" _It was his father again, off on one of his speeches. _I don't think that's what Dad was trying to tell me then… _Jack thought, as he connected to this world with that other one he had experienced. _But I…don't want all of that to happen. Dad…_ He saw the haggard old face of his father from the future world. He would make him that way- he would one day burn him alive for his nonexistent crimes. As much as he hated his father…it was a horrible way to die. He knew from experience.

Jack turned away from the platform on which the Soul Scepter sat and began to wander around his lab, trying to drive these memories, and these images out of his mind. He just needed a bit more time in the shadows of this gloomy lair to get him into the evil, scheming mood. _I know,_ he decided, opening up one of the various giant cabinets that lined the dingy walls. _I'll let some of my Jack-bots out to play. Maybe they'll do that thing with the Chihuahua again…_

When he was bored, sometimes Jack let his robots torture the neighbor's Chihuahua just for a laugh. They'd never seriously hurt the animal, but it was fun watching the little yippy dog running from an army of evil, armored, floating robots. Of course, the neighbors would complain to Mr. Spicer who in turn would reprimand Jack, but right now, the lecture didn't really matter to him.

However, when he looked up at the first Jack-bot that fell out of the closet, his slight excitement immediately wore off. The large, armored robot was clutching something long and brown in its clamp-like hand…a jump rope.

"Darn rope!" Jack muttered to himself, yanking the long coil out of the machine's grip. "I swear, somehow they're smuggling them in…"

This jump rope obsession began when he was once again forced to baby-sit his little cousin Meagan, and she'd taught the Jack-bots how to play jump rope. Unfortunately, some of them had actually taken a liking to the children's game, and sometimes would spontaneously produce a rope like this one and start playing.

Jack stormed over to a trash barrel and was just about to toss the long coil inside, but then another horrible memory from the future world entered his mind. It was Meagan, of course, the future Meagan, in her shabby clothing, desperately pointing a Shen-Gong-Wu at him, as she and Ashley fought for their independence. She'd tied to use a HeliPack to escape, but couldn't control it. Maybe he should give her a chance to try it next time; then she'd know how to use it properly, and escape…

Next, he saw Meagan and Ashley, clutching each other, just before they were going to be burned…the Mustards sisters… He'd have to ask his father if they really were related.

The many fibrous strands within the rope were weaving in front of Jack's eyes. He hated that little girl and the bratty way she always tried to boss him around…but somehow, he couldn't imagine doing something so terrible to her.

Jack gritted his teeth in frustration, and slammed the rope into the wastebasket. _I don't want to be like that…but I don't want to be "good" either. But there _is _nothing in between. Can't I be medium evil? There's no such thing… That would sound weird- Jack Spicer, semi-evil boy genius…_

He turned back around to face the workbench where the Soul Scepter still lied, in waiting. Suddenly, he noticed something small and rectangular sitting next to it. Jack stepped off to brush what he figured was debris from his "presenting platform", but froze in position, eyes wide when he got a look at what it really was. His heart began pounding, with disbelief and fear. Those memories again…

It was one of the emotion chips he'd manufactured for the more advanced of his robot minions. He didn't remember what he was planning on doing with this one, since there were no open Jack-bots lying in heaps along the floor. Slowly, his hands began trembling, before he even knew it. Here was the key to that future…right in front of him, where his future self had told him it would be.

There was that memory, produced by the Vase of Viscous Visions…when he had first put that chip in. It was true…all of it was true. His life's goal had always been to rule the world…to make it a different place to live in. He wanted to change everything… He wanted to get rid of these secret, fearful, lonely feelings…

_No. I can't keep doing this forever, _he thought, without even realizing it. _I will never be able to do this…because of my own pathetic personality…_ His hands trembled as he slowly clutched the new insertion device and lifted it from its pedestal. He could be holding the key to his success in his very paled hands. It didn't matter what happened on the outside…he'd never feel any regret, guilt, or sorrow on the inside… With just one shove, everything he had always strived for could be attained right here and now. It would only hurt for a second, and then he'd never hurt again…

Jack held the little object closer to his chest. And just then, those images shot through his head- of what would really happen on the outside…zombie Kimiko, and the Xiaolin Jesters, Mr. Spicer crying out for salvation, the Mustards sisters crying and waiting for death, Dojo spewing fire in pain and rage, those emaciated, barely clothed prisoners, working themselves to death, downgraded Facist Chase Young, and Julie screaming in agony as Wuya tried to take over her body… _It all…starts…now…_

"NO!" Jack suddenly managed to scream, tearing his gaze away from the little chip and flinging it to the ground. He stood for a moment in the same place, panting and sweating from the battle raging in his own head. A few of those despicable tears slid down his face, and he flung them off as he bent down to shove that awful device into the wastebasket with the jump rope. He couldn't believe he'd actually almost put that _thing_ in his body…when he'd been struggling for the longest time _against_ that awful other world…and he'd been just about to create it.

Jack took a few more deep breaths and tried to calm down. But it still had him spooked. Everything from that warped, crazy world was _true_. The Facist labor camp would be built right here- he was standing in the Shen-Gong-Wu storing room right now. And the Hill Palace…was probably built right over the Xiaolin Temple! And the surrounding areas would be Hilltown…

_Well, if _everything _from that world is true, _Jack reasoned_. That means I'm really the Dragon of Metal, and I have special magic powers! Ha, I doubt that, but… _He stepped up into what he remembered as the position he'd been in for his attack, one arm extended and the other bent in towards his chest.

"Metal!" he called, expecting to see the silvery backdrop spring up out of nowhere again…but nothing came. _How come nothing works in the present like it does in that future world? _He wondered. _Oh, that's right, the Soul Scepter worked like this…_

Jack seized the long handheld rod and twirled it around like he'd seen his future self do. "Soul Scepter, Metal!" Still, nothing happened. _It's not working…_ he thought with a frown. _Maybe because there aren't any souls around to capture…__ Or I don't really _want _to be the Dragon of Metal._

He set the Soul Scepter back down in its position on the "display platform" and turned back to his thoughts. _But if I _am _the Dragon of Metal, that doesn't necessarily mean that I have to become one of those goody-goody monks. I could just use my powers to fight and prevent…that future…yeah…_

He took his stance again and called, "Metal!" assuming it would work now that he was in a more positive mindset. Still nothing. "C'mon, I'm supposed to be the Dragon of Metal!" he yelled at the invisible powers around him. "Metal! …Metal! Metal, metal, metal!"

"What was that?" a hissing voice suddenly slid in his ear.

"Ah!" Jack cried in surprise as Wuya appeared out of nowhere and floated up beside him. "Uh…I'm out of metal for the new line of robots I'm working on… Yeah…I need some metal… Metal, metal, metal!"

If Wuya could roll her spiraled eyes, she would have been at that moment. She continued on past her brain-damaged partner, who was strangely posing to the side, and when she finally reached the center of the lair, lit up when she saw the treasure waiting for her. "Ah, the Soul Scpeter! Well done, boy. And I was starting to lose faith in you…"

Finally, Jack stopped trying to pose for his "Metal" attack and turned back towards the table and Wuya. It was strange…he didn't feel any excitement or motivation from this small compliment.

Wuya glanced back for a moment, a bit surprised when she didn't heard Jack's annoying voice bragging about how he had "destroyed" those Xiaolin Warriors with one hand tied behind his back. Oh well…it was a welcome change. "Now, if I were only human…" Wuya mused, staring into the wall, and placing one spade hand under her transparent chin.

Jack continued to stare at her, remembering how he'd tried to implant her into Julie, and take her powers.

While the evil ghost witch was thinking, she glanced back at Jack, and almost seemed to smile at him. "You've been most unusually quiet lately, Jack. I'm quite enjoying this…"

Jack went on staring, still lost in thought about the future events he'd witnessed. He didn't even hear when the little, malevolent sorceress told him about her new evil scheme.

"Yes…this is perfect! Jack, I need you to break into the Xiaolin Temple's vault again. It'll be easy, I know. Those simple-lived little monks have never thought to use any kind of alarm system… Then, once we have the Serpent's Tail and Reversing Mirror again…" Suddenly, in the middle of her evil plot, Wuya felt a strange force through her ghostly body. "Oooh…wait…" she quickly changed plans. "I feel…the awakening of a new Shen-Gong-Wu!"

At this statement, Jack finally snapped back into reality. New Shen-Gong-Wu… "The Vase of Viscous Visions?" he asked, his eyes lighting up in recognition.

"…Why, yes…" Wuya slowly admitted. "The Vase of Viscous Visions! …Wait, how did you know about…?"

Jack suddenly remembered that memory he'd seen through the vase when he'd first encountered it in the future. "Yeah…" he said, shifting his gaze towards the stairs. "It's in the house! I know where it is!" There was a decorative vase that always sat on a pedestal in one of this house's museum-like hallways. Though he'd never known it all these years, the Vase of Viscous Visions had been sitting right under his nose the entire time.

Wuya floated in place and watched in disbelief as Jack thundered up the stairs, where her magical sense was also pointing to as the location of the Vase of Viscous Visions. "Bah!" she said to herself. "I don't know how he did _that_. Certainly that boy doesn't have the power to sense Shen-Gong-Wu…"

A few minutes later, as Jack was sprinting through the hallways of his own ancient Chinese decorated mansion, Wuya permeated through the floor and floated up beside him. "The Vase of Viscous Visions…" he said, half to her and half to himself. "That was the one that stored memories, right?"

_Amazing…_ Wuya thought to herself, but out loud, she said, "Well, of course, what would you expect from something called the 'Vase of Viscous Visions'?"

Finally, Jack reached the pedestal he remembered from the memory…but when he got there, the intricate eye pedestal was empty. Up above them, one of the skylight ceiling windows was ajar, and that could only mean one thing…

"Blast!" Wuya cried, grabbing her head in disgust. "Those cursed Xiaolin Warriors have already gotten it! Why didn't you sense it earlier, if you could sense it?"

"I was…distracted," Jack truthfully answered. "I didn't remember about it being here…" In sudden inspiration, he clenched one of his hands into a fist. "I'll go after them!" he decided. "If they left the window open, they must have heard us coming and had to hurry out. I bet they're not far from here!" So the villainous duo rushed back down the fancy halls to the secret laboratory.

-

It was getting pretty late by the time Jack and Wuya caught up with the fast-flying dragon. The three kids on its back seemed relaxed and confident, gazing down at the sunset in the distance. So needless to say, it was the perfect time for an ambush.

Jack revved the engine of his hover car up to maximum, intending to zoom up alongside them and grab the Vase right out of their hands, but the vehicle was starting to lose control. He yanked the wheel to the left, but it didn't seem to move at all.

_BANG! _The hover car, going at top speed, slammed right into Dojo, causing the three Xiaolin Warriors on his back to fall to the ground again, and drop the Vase.

"What are you doing?" Wuya criticized as Dojo slithered around to go catch them. "You could have just used a Shen-Gong-Wu to take it from them!"

Jack shrugged. "I didn't bringany with me. And besides, mowing them over with the hover car is way more evil!"

Wuya sighed in desperation and turned to look out the side window.

Jack grinned as he slowed the floating vehicle to normal speed, and redirected it towards the ground. Finally, he was beginning to feel like his old self again. In situations like these, he could forget about those nagging experiences from the future and just concentrate on being as evil as possible…like always. At last, he spotted the shaken Xiaolins on the grass below and brought the hover car into landing.

Omi, Clay, and Kimiko sat up and rubbed their bruised body parts as some large, slightly familiar machine settled down in front of them. A _very _familiar person then jumped out of the driver's seat.

"Wonder no longer, you thieving monks," he called, trying to make an entrance. "You have just been the hit-and-run victims of Jack Spicer, evil boy genius!"

Omi immediately hopped to his feet, pointing accusingly at their nemesis. "I knew it! Who else would run over our transportation with a flying…um, thing!"

"How can you call _us_ thieves?" Kimiko added, placing her hands, angrily on her hips.

For a moment, Jack froze at the sight of her. She looked kind of pretty today, in her black-and-purple striped outfit, and shining black hair hanging long and straight… He felt a slight prickle on his cheeks as he remembered that in that other future world, she had been his wife. "Er…urrr…" he struggled forward, trying to cover up his flustered state. "…Well, it was in _my_ house! You shouldn't have just barged in and taken it!"

"What were we _supposed_ to do?" Kimiko argued back. "Ask, 'Jack Spicer, may we please take that Shen-Gong-Wu in your house?' I _really _don't think that would've worked for us."

Jack glanced down, and found the blue-tinted item lying on its side in the grass a few meters away. The Xiaolin Warriors didn't seem to notice it, busy tending to their bruises, and the large, red spot that had appeared along Dojo's bottom half.

"Still, that Shen-Gong-Wu was _mine_!" he called over to them, although Kimiko seemed like the only one who was listening. "And now I'm going to bring it back where it belongs!" With a quick flick of the switch, the propellers on Jack's HeliPack popped out and started up. He flew as fast as he could towards the item, and was just about to grab one of its handles, when Kimiko noticed what was going on.

"Oh no you don't!" she yelled, and with one acrobatic flip, landed on the other side, grabbing the opposite handle.

The Vase of Viscous Visions stood between their two hands, but they were so close now, Jack really had to try to hide his blushing. "Kimiko, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!" he cried, ducking behind the body of the vase.

"I'm ready, Jack," Kimiko replied. "What's it gonna be _this _time?"

"Uh…" For a moment, Jack couldn't think of anything for a Showdown. He concentrated and tried to remember that list he'd made up of possible challenges, but nothing was registering, and the only things he could think about were Julie and the zombie Kimiko, lying on a golden platform in her peasant's clothes.

Turning away for a second to think, he spied a hill in the field to the distance, and blurted out, "First one to the top of that hill! You Star Hanabi against my, uh…" Jack had to take a moment to search through his pockets. He didn't think he'd even brought any Shen-Gong-Wu with him, but happened to pull out that powerful, familiar item. It was the only thing he had, since he hadn't stopped to grab any Shen-Gong-Wu out of the closet before rushing out after them. "…against my Soul Scepter!"

"You idiot!" Wuya yelled, flying up to his ear. "You can't wager _that_! You'll just lose it again!"

"Be quiet," Jack told her, brandishing the golden rod. "I won it before, didn't I? I can win it again!"

The miniature Heylin witch took a deep breath and hoped for the best. "He's gone overconfident again…" she muttered to herself. "I don't know if this is a good or a bad sign."

Kimiko accepted, and as soon as the two called, "Xiaolin Showdown", the hill grew higher up into the air and became a mountain. A white flag at the very tip marked the goal. Dojo floated up on one side, holding up Omi and Clay, while Wuya floated on the other, around the mountain.

"Gong Yi TanPai!" Kimiko and Jack yelled in unison and both sprinted off towards the mountain.

As soon as he reached the base, Jack flicked his helicopter blades on again and they yanked him up into the sky. He had to get that vase and keep the scepter at all costs! But still…another part of him would be glad to get rid of those haunting Shen-Gong-Wu, and for a moment he considered purposely throwing the showdown.

"Star Hanabi, Fire!" Kimiko yelled, throwing out the flaming Shuriken and aiming it directly at Jack. Meanwhile, she was thinking, _Wow, Jack actually wagered the Soul Scepter on this! I have to get it back and make up for Omi's loss! This is probably the only chance any of us are going to get!_

"Aaugh!" Jack cried as a sharp, hot metal object slammed into his back, catching his jacket on fire. He fell forward onto the cold, stone of the mountain, and tried to snuff the fire out. "See?" he said as he rocked back and forth on the ground. "Stop, drop, and roll! I'm setting a good example for all the kids who watch this show!"

Kimiko jumped up the cliff next to him and raised her thin eyebrows. "If _you're_ a good example, I'd hate to see what a _bad_ example would be." She then skipped, daintily and acrobatically up the steep footholds of the cliff.

The fire finally extinguished, Jack popped back up and followed her into the sky. He felt a little flustered as he revisited these future events, and struggled to concentrate on directing his whirling "wings". Naturally his HeliPack was faster than Kimiko's high jumps, and the white flag at the summit was growing closer and closer.

As he neared victory, a desperate female voice yelled from below- "Star Hanabi, Fire!" Remembering the disaster before, Jack whirled around, expecting to see the spinning star come shooting towards him.

His hands automatically gripped around the Soul Scepter. This was the part when he would normally use his Shen-Gong-Wu to defend himself…but he couldn't use the Soul Scepter. He didn't want to take Kimiko's soul…although it was the only way he'd ever get her to like him… Jack hesitantly held out the rod and stared at it for a moment. _Maybe I could just take _her _soul, and no one else's…_

Then, the peasant adult Kimiko stared blankly back at him from the future. Mechanically, she began to perform a dance routine in front of him. _No…I don't want her to live like that…_

Finally, not knowing what else to do with this dangerous item, he gripped its end like a baseball bat, and when the rotating Star Hanabi zoomed towards him, he whacked it with the staff and sent it flying into the side of the mountain.

Kimiko glanced down when she saw her Shen-Gong-Wu smack against the rocks a meter or so down. _I don't think _that's _what the Soul Scepter was meant to do, _she realized. _He must not have figured out how it works yet! …Oooh, this is our last chance! _With such a surge of inspiration, she leaped towards the summit, using the last of her strength to clamber on top of the mountain.

It was too late. Just as she set foot on that ground, Jack burst from the side of the mountain, setting the speed of his helicopter fans on maximum. Rocks from the mountainside came flying up with him. As he zoomed for the white flag, the rocks hovered dangerously in the air just above Kimiko.

"Oh, no!" Clay exclaimed from the sidelines.

"Kimiko!" Omi cried.

Jack's hand was a few inches away from the flagstaff when he heard a shriek from behind him. He jerked his body back around for a second to see what was going on. A giant boulder was hurtling through the air…about to crush Kimiko! In an instant, Jack realized that he was about to kill her, just like in that future world…and he had to save her somehow!

"No!" he yelled, with no thought or assent. "Stop! _Metal_!" His body was pulled into that same extended-arm position and silvery spikes erupted from the ground, catching the boulder as it fell.

"What the…" Kimiko slowly asked as she got a look at the spikes around her, protecting her. "…What just happened?"

She moved to step out between them, but before she could, Jack snapped back into the matter at hand, and grabbed the flag from the rocky perch.

"What _did_ just happen?" Omi asked, glancing down at Dojo. "He just said "metal" and a bunch of spikes popped out of the ground!"

"Nah, that wasn't all," Clay added. "I saw some odd-lookin' symbol behind him…it looked kinda familiar."

"I…I…" Dojo was too stunned to talk, which was a first. "No…no, it can't be…"

"Can't be _what?_" Omi and Clay both insisted.

Since Jack had won the Showdown, the mountain below them sank back into the slightly elevated hill from which it had originally come. Both the boulder and the spikes disappeared from around Kimiko, and Omi, Clay, and Dojo came floating down to meet her.

"Kimiko!" Omi cried, jumping off the dragon's back and running to her side. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she replied. "But I'm not sure _why_…"

Meanwhile, Jack turned his back to the happy, reunited Xiaolin Warriors and didn't even notice when the blue Vase of Viscous Visions materialized in his arms. He'd won another Showdown. That was two in a row…but suddenly, it didn't really matter. He'd just saved Kimiko's life…but that wasn't truly registering in his mind either.

Right now, the only things he could see were the blue, endless sky and the sprawling grass field around him. There was so much to the world…it was just so _big_. Today, with computers, the internet, and jet planes, it was easy to lose sight of how big the world really was…but these two things seemed to go on forever. Soon, it would all be just one tiny town, surrounded by millions of miles of empty wasteland. What a waste of space…

_Maybe…I don't want the world to change…_ Jack slowly admitted to himself. _Maybe…it should just stay the way it is. Maybe no one _will _ever respect me…or like me…but at least everything won't be destroyed. _He managed a hesitant smile at this existing world.

While the three Xiaolin Warriors remained clueless about the last event, Wuya knew exactly what had happened. "So _that's _why he's been acting so strange…" she said to herself. "Jack is really the Dragon of Metal! I was wondering where that _extra _one went…" Her eyes spiraled around, digesting this information. "That means those others will try to get him on their side…and I can't have that happen! I know…" At that moment, the transparent, ghostly witch turned and targeted her now former servant.

"You know what it looked like to me?" Kimiko told her friends as they discussed the mysterious spikes. "It's weird, but it almost looked like Jack was using an elemental attack."

"He said 'Metal', like he was the Dragon of Metal or something…" Omi continued. "But there's no such thing as a Dragon of Metal, is there? There are only four elements…"

But Dojo, behind them, was shaking his head. He could tell already, but he was just in shock and denial. Jack Spicer couldn't be a Chosen One, it just wasn't possible…

"This is the end of the line, boy," a familiar, screeching voice stated as it lowered itself just in front of Jack.

"Wuya…?" Jack slowly said, at last noticing her presence.

"You are of no use to me anymore in that state. It's time I took control of this situation…"

"Huh?" Jack asked as he tucked the Vase of Viscous Visions away in his coat pocket. "Now what are you babbling about?"

The purple, transparent witch smiled, wickedly. "Since now I can't have you steal my materials for me, and I need a body to use that Soul Scepter…why don't I just…" Steadily, she was reeling herself back, preparing for something, and at this statement, shot forward, aiming straight for Jack's chest.

He gasped, startled by her sudden actions, but his "normal" mind told him he shouldn't be. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling to have another spirit slithering around inside of you, but he thought he would be okay… Wuya only used this power to hide from enemies or to read his mind, she could never…or could she?

Instantly, another image from the future flashed before Jack's eyes. It was Julie screaming and gripping her body, as Wuya tried to take control of it from the inside out. Her face and her skin flickered death gray, and she desperately tried to speak, her voice choked in a rasp. She had been able to do that through the Soul Scepter. It didn't matter what the principles of it all was; he couldn't afford to take a risk like that.

Omi, Kimiko, Clay, and Dojo all glanced over when they noticed the action.

"Stop!" Jack yelled in desperation, throwing out his hands as a gesture of resistance. He looked away, closing his eyes, afraid of what would happen to him in the next minute. He never intended for anything to happen, and though it was a futile resistance, it made him feel a little better to know that he at least tried… But, in that instant, as Wuya was zooming towards him, a shiny, opaque barrier popped into existence in front of him.

"Oooh!" Wuya exclaimed as she slammed into the barrier and went reeling backwards. She flew back into position again and rubbed her tentacle-like head.

"_Now_ what just happened?" Kimiko asked, turning to question Omi at her side. "I thought Wuya could go through any solid object."

"Even if he _is _the Dragon of Metal, I don't know how he made that shield…"

Jack stared at the discombobulated ghost in front of him. Somehow, he'd protected himself from her body-snatching scheme. He had power; he didn't have to submit to this "partner" any more. And suddenly, he knew exactly what he should do to be rid of her nagging demands forever.

_The Soul Scepter…can take any spirit and trap it in its red globe…and in the future, Wuya merged with Julie inside the globe… So that means it's possible… _Jack suddenly pulled the Soul Scepter out of its holder at his side, and held it out, threateningly at his former evil master. "You're right; this is the end of the line, Wuya… I don't need you anymore, either!"

Wuya simply laughed and brushed the threat off. "Ha! You think I'm scared of a little rod like that? You can't use that stupid Shen-Gong-Wu to capture me. You don't even know how it works, do you?"

Jack narrowed his eyes and glared at his former "friend". All this time, he'd always thought of her as a friend- a companion that would be there, no matter what. Even though she yelled at him, and made fun of his methods and personality, she was still…there. But now, with that horrible image of the future searing in his mind, he was willing to lose his companion, and everything he'd worked so hard for, so that everything could stay the way it was.

It seemed a crazy notion, since his original intention had been completely the opposite…but now he realized for the first time- changing the world would only worsen it…and Wuya was never really his friend or ally, she had to use him in order to get her body back, in lieu of succumbing to Katnappe's conditions. He didn't need to keep in servitude to her forever. Although the back of his mind thought that the next day or two would be painful if he captured her, this was the only opportunity he would get. He could either capture her now, or remain the way he was until he became the heartless killing machine of the future.

"Oh, yes I do," Jack finally objected. He twirled the smooth golden Shen-Gong-Wu around in his hands and aimed the center crystal at the witch spirit. "Soul Scepter, Metal!" At last, the red, capturing beam erupted from the crystal ball, and washed around Wuya, sticking her to its reach.

"Ooh, I get it!" Omi said, lighting up. "The Soul Scepter is a special _elemental _Shen-Gong-Wu. It can only be used with the Dragon of Metal powers. …I guess he really _is_ the Dragon of Metal!"

Wuya's high-pitched scream echoed through the field as the beam began to drag her into the crystal. It was a much different experience to be on the opposite side of the scepter's snatching ray. Jack's arms were shaking from the immense power shooting out of its center. It suddenly felt like he was in control, at last. He didn't need to stay in this everlasting loophole forever.

Finally, at last, the beam receded back into the round crystal ball. And that was it. Wuya was gone.

Jack fell forward from the release of power, and held out his arms just in time before he smashed into the grass. Jack didn't even notice it as first, but he was panting again, mostly from the shock of what he had just done. _Why…_he asked himself, _why did I do a stupid thing like that? Now I'll never be appreciated…even as a tool of an evil demon. _Because he was staring at the ground and trying to block out the rest of the world, Jack didn't notice when the Xiaolin crew rushed up in front of him.

"Juh…Jack…Spicer?" Kimiko at last said, in disbelief. "…What happened?"

"You captured Wuya?" Omi stated the obvious, displaying as much amazement as his female teammate.

Hearing their presence, Jack simply held the Soul Scepter out with both hands, not even bothering to look up. "Here-take this. I want you to take it. Don't let me get a hold of it again. It's dangerous, and now that I can use it again…"

Slowly, Omi stepped up to receive the item, but then turned away. "No. You did win that Shen-Gong-Wu yourself. I can't just take it from you."

"I'm giving it to you," Jack insisted, shoving the scepter out a little further. "Take it. Now!"

Omi looked back at Dojo for confirmation. "…Is that legal?"

Dojo quickly skimmed the ancient Xiaolin Showdown rulebook. "Yup," he affirmed. "If one owner decided to give his Shen-Gong-Wu to another person, then that person is allowed to take it, even if it was won in a Showdown."

Omi reached out and was about to take the Soul Scepter, but turned away yet again. "No, it just doesn't feel right. I was the one that lost…"

Finally, Jack ventured a glance up at his pint-sized nemesis. "You have to take it. Otherwise, in a day or two, I'll just give in and release her again. Please…" Now, this was really strange, being on his knees and pleading with the little, bald monk, but…it had to be done.

"Okay…" Omi at last consented, and slowly lifted the staff from Jack's black gloved palms. Surprisingly, though, he didn't move from his crouched position. The Xiaolin Warriors stared, from the silent tension and confusion in the air.

"You're the Dragon of Metal?" Kimiko slowly asked, blinking. "Well…thanks for saving me."

Jack didn't even look up in response. He was still trying to figure out what in the world he would do now. He didn't want to stay the same, but he didn't want anything to drastically change. It didn't matter- whatever he did, it wouldn't feel right. Now that Wuya was gone, it would be awkward and unnatural. What would happen if he went home? He didn't feel safe sitting around the lair in his current state. Who knows what he might do by himself with his screwed up thoughts about the future?

"Jack Spicer!" Omi cried, jumping forward with enthusiasm. "You must come back to the temple with us! We could really use a new Warrior around…with Raimundo missing and all…"

Jack just shook his head as always. "No…no… You just want me because I've got powers now… I don't know what to do now. There's nothing… I captured her so I could try to change things…but…"

"That's right!" Omi interrupted, still trying to persuade him to come. "You did capture Wuya with that staff…you're the only one who can use it! And, earlier, with that spike attack, you saved Kimiko's life! Jack Spicer, you're a hero!"

Jack didn't respond to this for a while. He began to tremble as he thought about all that had changed just now. "N-Nothing seems…normal anymore. It doesn't make…sense… I want everything to go back to the way it was…but I don't want it to happen…"

Kimiko and Clay exchanged confused, suspicious looks. Jack was on his knees in front of them, spouting nonsense and shaking from fear, anxiety, pressure, or a mixture of all three. Sure, they'd seen a few weird things happen to him while they were there, but now he looked like he was having a nervous breakdown. They looked back again with concern in their eyes.

"It's just…I have nothing now. I had to capture Wuya because one day she'd just try to destroy us all again, and maybe it's another step to preventing the future…"

Then, he finally remembered those statements he'd made in that future world while struggling for that world and what was left of its people- _"I don't want any of this to happen. I don't want…to be…evil…" _Was it true in this world too? It was the same world- the same place, just in a different era.

"…I have nothing now…" he slowly began to repeat, as his face tightened, and his eyes squeezed closed. "But, I guess it's okay, as long as…" Jack trailed off as a black, baggy pant leg stepped up, just a foot in front of his nose. It was Omi again- that annoying, persistent, goody-goody monk he despised. But the next few words out of his mouth were the ones to truly instill the reality of the idea within his mind.

The little sallow-skinned boy held out a small hand, and smiled, with his eyes closing into slits. "Well…" he easily stated. "…You've still got us."

It took Jack a while to let the statement settle into his panicked and paralyzed brain. At last, he started to get up again, staring at Omi the whole time. The young monk kept his hand extended, almost expectantly. Jack glanced down at his hand…and then into the distance at Kimiko, Clay, and Dojo.

They were staring at him as well, holding their breath. Kimiko was standing very still, a worried look on her face, as she clutched her hands together just in front of her mouth. She was obviously afraid…but was she afraid that he would turn them down…or afraid that he _wouldn't_?

Jack shook his head a little as he tried to think it over. _No…_ one of his inner voices told him, _they'll never accept you, after all you've done to them… _While another side argued, _this is your chance to start over. If you go with them, it'll be like a whole new life…and the future might change._

When he happened to look up again, he saw Kimiko talking to herself behind her worried, clutching hands and managed to read her lips- "Please…take his hand, Jack."

He looked down again and took a deep breath. It would be strange…it would be difficult for a long while, but now he knew he had to do this.

At last, he reached out, and curled his large, gloved hand around Omi's little pointy one. And the two shook.

The tension in the air and on everyone's faces gently relaxed, and they melted into little smiles. Jack felt very awkward as Omi dragged him by the sleeve over to the others, but their signs of joy automatically made him feel a little better about it.

"Yay!" Kimiko exclaimed. "He's one of us now!"

"We always knew you couldn't be _all _evil," Omi added, at last releasing his sleeve. "Remember when I tried to get you to join before? You weren't even the Dragon of Metal then, but you helped us try to defeat Wuya…" The energetic boy began to talk in a very fast voice, recalling the whole incident.

Meanwhile, Jack looked over at Clay, next to him. The cowboy had been stonily indifferent to the whole idea the entire time, but at that moment, he suddenly reached over and pulled Jack into a bear hug. "Mmmmff!" he cried as his face squished against Clay's broad chest and he struggled to get away from him.

When Clay noticed, he released him again, blushing a little bit, and said, "Sorry. Just glad to have ya on the team, par'dner."

Jack gasped for breath, feeling extremely awkward again, and looked over at Omi, who was still rambling away.

"…andthenWuyanoticedsoweranforourlivesandsheshotthesegreenballsatus…"

Kimiko rolled her eyes, and glanced back at Jack. "Hey, we should have a celebration in honor of our new Xiaolin Warrior!"

This finally caught Omi's attention, and dragged him away from his story. "Oh! Yes! I know! We can all go out for frozen cream! Jack Spicer, you promised, remember?"

Finally, Jack spoke for the first time since his nervous breakdown. He turned away from the others for a moment and crossed his arms. "I never promised you anything," he told them in a low voice. "I just said _maybe _we could go get ice cream."

They all fell terribly silent again, and the tension returned. The three original Xiaolin Warriors looked at each other. Did that mean he was changing his mind and didn't want to be a part of their group anymore?

Jack grinned to himself. Though he couldn't see what was going on behind him, he could almost feel their concern and puzzlement. It was fun playing with them like this. At last, he thought they had suffered long enough, and turned around, with the same grin plastered over his face. "So…what are we waiting for?"

They all smiled in relief. They began to board Dojo again, Omi in the front, and Kimiko behind him. When Jack clambered onto the round dragon skin in back of her, she pulled out a fan and whacked him over the head with it. "Don't you ever scare us like that again!" she scolded.

Jack wobbled on the dragon, and rubbed his forehead. Oh, yes, this was going to be very interesting.

Just as they were about to lift off, Clay got a good look at who was sitting in front of him, and yelled up to the two in front. "Uhhh…I don't think this is such a good idea!"

"Oh, don't worry," Jack replied, turning around to reassure him. "I'm used to it now. You could say I 'got my dragon legs', or something…"

The long dragon snaked up into the sky. And as Jack felt the familiar feeling of the wind rushing through his hair and past his cheeks, he looked out to the horizon before them. It reminded him of his race back to the Hill Palace in that future world. But, this time was much different. This time he wasn't just zooming towards a new destination; he was going towards a new –and possibly better- life.


	9. Adoptions and Adaptations

All together now…big sigh of relief! AHHHHH! Anyway, aside from the explanation section at the beginning, this chapter is just pure fun. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it! Jack's finally decided to join the Xiaolin Temple, but he still needs to officially join, and then, to get used to life at the temple. This chapter's a little treat for making it all the way through the freaky, dismal chapters 5-8. Enjoy! I already addressed this, but I decided that the Dragon of Metal powers, since they are such a powerful force, were the only powers meant to be passed down, and stay in the Orre family (more about that in that story). It's different from the original four, so…and I really wanted to keep this little thing I made up about Jack's parents… Oh, and sorry for the referance to S2 Shen-Gong-Wu...

Thanks for all the reviews, and thanks to ChibiChaos, who I haven't officially thanked yet. Jadebell…I don't know about doing The House That Jack Built…I can't remember how the whole thing went…but I thought of something else…

EF: Little Jack Spicer sat in the…er…

Omi: …slicer!

(Jack appears, bound and gagged, hanging above a slicing blade)

Jack: Mmmmmmmmmmm!

Rai: No, dicer!

(the chopping blade turns into a several, crisscrossing chopping blades)

Jack: MMMMMMMMMMMM! (wiggling around like caterpillar)

EF: Gee, you guys are worse than me! (waves the blades away, and unties Jack)

Jack: (grovels at her feet) Oh, thank you, all great and powerful authoress! I'll never complain about your…

EF: I'll put you in the icer instead! (shoves him into a large icebox)

Jack: No! Wait! Not the icer! (slowly freezes into an ice block)

Rai: Ha ha! Hey, look, it's Jack Frost!

Everyone else: (eye roll)

EF: Now where was I? Oh, yes, little Jack Spicer sat in the icer, eating his Christmas pie…

(a pie appears in front of Jack, and he sticks his whole face in it, since his arms are frozen)

EF: …he stuck in his thumb, and pulled out a plum…

(suddenly, Jack's right arm melts, and he starts jabbing the pie with his thumb)

Jack: Uh…this is an _apple _pie… How am I supposed to find a plum in an apple pie! …Aw, forget it. Why am I doing all this anyway?

EF: …and said…

Jack: (throws the rest of the pie into Omi's face and starts cackling) What an evil boy genius am I!

Omi: …….You should've just stopped after the icer part…

EF: (closes the icer door, amidst Jack's complains) Okay, time for the chapter!

-

Chapter 9: Adoptions and Adaptations

It was nighttime at the Xiaolin Temple. Aged monks were returning from their meditating sessions, and everyone inside the papery walls was lighting candles to fill the rooms with a gentle glow. Crickets chirped outside in the cool spring air.

Meanwhile, at the very center of the large temple community, the revered old temple master was pacing back and forth in front of a small altar. "They should have been back by now…" he said to himself. "It was only the Vase of Viscous Visions- that Shen-Gong-Wu has no power to harm…"

He stopped for a moment and looked up at the strained glass depiction of a young woman with dark orange-colored hair. "And the other day, when I called for Marylyn's powers…I almost felt like they were going to emerge, but I have seen nothing yet. The Soul Scepter still remains in the clutches of evil… I must find Marylyn's heir, so that he or she can take the object back…" Master Fung at last stopped his musing when he heard a faintly familiar voice calling to him.

"Master Fung! Master Fun-ung! Where is that old crackpot?" It was Dojo. Apparently, the Xiaolin Warriors had returned and were waiting for him in the main room.

He boldly stepped out into the normal, red-carpeted room where he always met with his apprentices to tell them important things or give advice. "Here I am," he told the now minimized lizard. "And did I just hear you call me a crackpot?"

"Oh, no, no," Dojo sheepishly lied, slithering to his partner's feet. "I was saying we hit the jackpot! Literally, I guess."

That was when Master Fung noticed for the first time- there was Kimiko, tending to her hair after the wind had frazzled it, Omi, babbling on and on about a tree, and Clay, warming up for his next rodeo. But there was someone else with them. The more he looked at this new boy, he faintly recognized him as Wuya's helper, and the one that was always competing with them for Shen-Gong-Wu… Yes, Jack Spicer was his name. What was _he _doing with them?

"I have no idea how it happened, or how it's even possible," Dojo was explaining in his ear, "But that evil kid is the Dragon of Metal! Really, we saw him make the spike attack you told me about…and the Silver Shield… He used the Soul Scepter to capture Wuya; isn't that brilliant?"

"Master Fung," Omi addressed him, stepping up with the Soul Scepter clutched in his hands. "I have recovered the Soul Scepter. Wuya's ghost is trapped within it. We must keep it safely locked away."

"Yes," Master Fung consented, taking the object from him. "I'll find a special vault for it. It's too dangerous to go in with the other Shen-Gong-Wu."

When the old master returned, it was time for the initial matter at hand. At their little "party", the other Xiaolin Warriors had told Jack that he needed to first ask for Master Fung's permission to stay at the temple, and they had showed him the things to do in order to make a good impression.

When Master Fung stepped back into the room, Jack boldly stepped up and kneeled in front of him. "Err…I've changed my mind…I'd like to join your temple, sir." It hurt to act so falsely polite, but since he'd been doing it for years with his father and their visitors, he was a pro at it by now.

Master Fung raised his eyebrows, searching for any traces of a trick. "So, boy, you believe you are the legendary Dragon of Metal?"

"L-Legendary?" Jack nervously stuttered. "Well, sometimes I just say 'Metal' and a bunch of spikes come out of the ground, but I don't even know I'm doing it. It's…not that special, really…" He glanced up at Master Fung. Was this some sort of crazy test? If it was, he hoped that that was a good answer.

"Metal, the fifth element to some cultures, is not always represented within the Xiaolin order. It is an optional power, yet a very strong addition to the original four. In fact, some argue that it shouldn't be a real power; it should be under the element Earth, since Metal comes from the Earth… Now," he finally changed the subject. "What brought you to repent your evil ways?"

"Well…" Jack prepared to explain, but this would be a long, difficult explanation. "I went into the future…wanting to see a world where I ruled everything. It was terrible, and I hated it so much, I never want it to happen. If this is what I have to do to stop that from happening, then I'm willing to do it." He looked down at his lap, again wondering if he'd gotten that question right.

"Ah," Master Fung said in understanding. "A wise choice."

"Huh?" Kimiko asked from down below. "How'd you go into the future? I thought you needed a power source to make your time machine work, and we took the Sands of Time into another time and place."

"Well, in Paris, there was a scientist guy, and I volunteered to test out his new dimension portal. I made him take me to a place where I ruled the world…and it turned out that place wasn't in an alternate reality, or another universe, it was only thirty years into the future. And the people were all like zombies, and then I killed them…" He cut himself off at that point. They didn't need to know all the gory details…especially Kimiko. They were all still gaping behind him, probably terrified of him now.

Master Fung smiled, finally beginning to see the connections. "Well, it's very good that you want to change that, Jack. I think you'll make an excellent Dragon of Metal."

Jack looked fully back up at him. "Does that mean I passed?"

Master Fung chuckled. "It was never a test; I just wanted a bit of information. That was all." He really had wanted to make sure Jack wasn't lying, and from the actions and expressions he'd just seen on him, he was completely honest. "Now…could you just show me your attack for a moment; I want to evaluate your power."

Jack stood up again and took a deep breath. "Well…I don't know. This wasn't working a while ago, but I'll try it out…" He closed his eyes and tried to position himself correctly. At first it wasn't working. Then, when he forced himself to remember the pain of the future and Kimiko's screams, he instinctively yelled, "Metal!" and snapped into the right pose.

Master Fung smiled and nodded to himself as the familiar glittering triangles popped out of the floor of the temple room. He noticed the dark grayish background surrounding Jack, and the yin-yang symbol etching into the backdrop and nodded again.

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened before!" Dojo cried from his shoulder. "And he did the Silver Shield too, when Wuya was charging at him."

"Well, let's not force him to do the Silver Shield now," Master Fung decided. "He probably doesn't even know how he did it." At last, Jack came out of the attack and sat down on the floor again. "Well, that settles it. Those are definitely unique Dragon of Metal powers," Master Fung concluded.

At this point, Omi, Kimiko, and Clay carefully sat on the floor near Jack, since they had some questions to ask. "But I don't get it," Kimiko spoke up in confusion. "How in the world did Jack Spicer ever get to be one of the Chosen Ones?"

"It's a bit complicated," Master Fung admitted. "You better listen too, Jack," he said, turning his head to the goth boy. "Because I doubt you know the real truth about your family."

Jack sat up in interest. He had always wondered about his family. He only knew his father and a few uncles, aunts, and cousins on his side, and he barely remembered his mother at all.

"Well, you see, Jack is a unique case. Never before has it happened in the history of the Xiaolin legacy…"

Jack blushed a bit. He shouldn't be special when he had just joined.

"Well," Master Fung continued to tell the story. "His father, Mr. Henry Spicer is a direct descendant of the mighty Spicer family, who received dark powers in order to help Wuya take over the world. They became her adopted Heylin following…"

"Yeah, so Jack's a direct descendant of the Heylin order," Omi spoke up, interrupting the story. "So why in the world was he chosen to be the Dragon of Metal?"

"Ah, you see, I'm not finished yet," Master Fung replied with a mysterious smile. He pointed up to the stained-glass painting above their heads.

"It's that one with the lady…" Kimiko whispered to herself. For months, the Xiaolin Apprentices had been walking through this room, looking up and wondering who this powerful woman was, but not one of them had the heart to ask.

"That," Master Fung continued, "Is Marylyn Orre. She was one of my best students ever: very strong, yet kind…and creative. Why, she even saved the temple one day with her amazing defensive powers. Marylyn was the old Dragon of Metal."

"You mean there were Xiaolin Warriors before us?" Kimiko asked in amazement.

"Oh, yes," Master Fung replied. "There have been ones for every generation. Although they never chased Shen-Gong-Wu, like you kids have, I have always trained them to be ready, just in case." He paused to take a breath. "Well, Marylyn wouldn't be known as Marylyn Orre anymore…she became Mrs. Marylyn Spicer."

A terribly long pause filled the room.

"Yes. That's right," Fung affirmed again. "Jack's mother. Which makes him half Heylin and half Xiaolin. When it came time for his powers to develop, he became the new Dragon of Metal, showing that he isn't truly evil. If he were, he would have developed the dark powers of the Heylin clan."

_Dark powers of the Heylin clan…_Jack thought. He suddenly saw his future self hurtling a dark energy ball at him. _That's what I had in the future! _He stared up at Master Fung, his mouth agape. "Wait a minute," he spoke up again. "If I've always had these powers, how come I never could use them before?"

"You see, the Heylin and Xiaolin powers are highly contradictive, and their clashing inside of you kept you in a fairly neutral position. Though, as we realize now, small bits of each power have been surfacing. Your Heylin power was what naturally drew you to Wuya… While your Xiaolin Warrior powers enabled you to open the puzzle box for the first time, and almost came out naturally…on "those days"."

Jack's eyes widened, wondering how Master Fung could know about his secret "dismal" sessions.

"That is why the yin-yang symbol appears in the background whenever Jack attacks. He has the Xiaolin powers, or yin, and the Heylin powers, or yang." The wise old temple master unexpectedly stepped forward, placing his hands gently on the sides of Jack's head, as if blessing him. "You're very lucky that you did not, as we formerly believed, develop split personalities."

"Sp-Split personalities?" Jack nervously replied.

"Yes," Master Fung explained. "We had never experienced anything like this; it had never occurred, but we always believed the Xiaolin powers, the "yin side" and the Heylin powers, or "yang side" would become completely separate entities, and initiate different personalities that came out at various times…"

Again, the vision of his evil, twisted future self popped back into Jack's mind. _…So that was my "yang" side?_

"Wait a minute," Clay spoke up in a confused tone. "If Jack's mama knew that his father was an evil Heylin descendant, why did she marry him?"

"Well, she didn't know," Master Fung explained. "If she had known, she wouldn't have married him, now would she? In fact, after she found out about Henry's Heylin heritage, she ran away from the house in a panic, leaving them behind. She gave me a call, out of energy, very shaken and afraid. Believe me, Jack, she didn't want to leave. The first words out of her mouth were actually, "I hope my son will forgive me."

Jack was staring up at Master Fung, his small red eyes growing a bit bigger in shock. The other Xiaolin Warriors glanced over, because they'd never seen him look so stunned.

"Uh…we're sorry, Jack, we never knew your mother had walked out on you…" Kimiko tried to solace him, but when she looked harder, she noticed that he was actually smiling.

"No, this is great news! She's alive and she actually cares about me!"

"Well, I'm not sure about that first part," Master Fung hated to disappoint him, but it had to be said. "I haven't seen or heard from Marylyn since." Jack's face fell a bit. A cold silence fell over the carpeted area.

"Well…" Omi at last spoke up. "Shall we find Jack a room?"

"Hold your horses," Dojo said from the master's shoulder, holding up a small, green hand. "He needs to okay it with his father first."

Omi looked puzzled, as always. "Dojo, I don't believe I own any horses, and if I did, I don't think I would have the arm capacity to hold them…"

"It's an expression, Omi," Clay explained. "It means 'hold on a minute'."

Omi scratched his smooth head, and then shook it in utter confusion. "That makes no sense at all."

Jack crossed his arms again and pouted at them. "Do I really _have _to? I know I have to go home to get my stuff, but…"

"Yes, you have to," Master Fung insisted. "I couldn't just take you away from your legal guardian. That would be kidnapping."

Jack just frowned some more. "Okay, okay…" he grumbled.

"Need a lift…ooof!" Dojo said, as he grew about 40 feet and slammed into the door on the other side of the room.

Master Fung shook his head, despairingly. "How many times have I told him not to enlarge inside the temple?" Kimiko opened the door and let Dojo spill onto the lawn.

"Yeah, thanks," Jack said as he climbed back onto the dragon's scaly hide. He was still a bit disgruntled by the task ahead of him. "See ya tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow!" Omi called as he and the others waved to him.

"And don't you run off and get evil on us again!" Kimiko scolded. "I don't ever want to face you in a showdown again!"

"Don't worry," Jack called from the dragon's back. "I won't take my evil pills tonight."

Omi, Kimiko, and Clay all exchanged puzzled, worried expressions. "It's a joke!" Jack yelled at them. "She just made it sound like a drug or something…"

They still didn't get it, but smiled and nodded to satisfy him. Then, Dojo lifted off, and became nothing more than a green line among the stars.

-

That night, Jack waited until it was pretty late and his father was fairly intoxicated before he slipped in to ask the question. "Dad…I need to ask you something…"

"Whaddaya want now?" Mr. Spicer mumbled, flipping the channels of his flat-screen, high definition TV.

"DadIwannaleavandjointheXiaolinTemple!" Jack rushed through the explanation. "Is that okay?"

It was a few minutes before Mr. Spicer managed a reply, but it was well worth the wait for his drawl of, "Yeah…surrrrrrre…"

Jack smiled. It was always fun to manipulate him while he was like this, and for a moment he considered asking for a few new supplies as well, but decided not to push it.

That night was probably the weirdest night of Jack's life. He spent the rest of the night packing up his clothes, CDs, and other paraphernalia. He shoved all of his robots, tools, blueprints, computers, wires, and other technical supplies into a giant cart with a hook on one end. He'd attach it to the hover car before he left tomorrow morning.

It still felt strange all night when he decided to just sleep in the lab, and not even bother going back up to his room. His father might get angry at the sight of him, anyway. So, he stared up at the ceiling and tried to imagine a better life with the Xiaolin Warriors. It seemed impossible, but maybe…just maybe it could happen… Everything had gone fine today, right? Finally, two hours later, when he finished writing the letter that he had forgotten to write, he fell asleep slightly disturbed and nervous.

-

At last, the day had arrived. Jack looked around his dreary, blank evil lair. Now it was like a cave hidden deep below the ancient Spicer house. He triple-checked the cart just to make sure he had everything and threw out some old junk- like a dispenser gone wrong, a twirling mechanical bow tie, and a few heads from the "Cheer-bots" that suddenly looked like female Facists. Then, just before he left the house, he walked by his old bedroom door to stick his letter there with an "instatack."

Later, as he was gently guiding his new towing hover car into the sky, he subconsciously began to sing one of those corny old songs he remembered the guests playing- "Hit the road, Jack, and doncha come back; no more no more no more no more- hit the road, Jack…" That was when he fished one of his biggest and heaviest hammers out of the back cart to hit himself in the head with.

-

"_John_!" the angry voice of Mr. Spicer echoed through the stone house. "Johnny Boy!" He stomped through the house, looking for his good-for-nothing son, and at last decided to check his bedroom, since he didn't seem to be getting any response from anywhere else. "John Henry Spicer, get out here right now! The Burgundy's will be here any moment!"

Finally, his bleary red eyes noticed a sheet of paper stuck to the door with an oddly shaped tack. "Rrrr, what's this?" he muttered in aggravation, and tore the sheet off the perfectly polished wood. "And he had to go and ruin my beautiful handcrafted wooden door…" He squinted and tried to make out Jack's sketchy, thin handwriting. It was a letter to him. Hmm…was this a suicide note? he wondered, and continued to read in order to find out:

-

Dearest Father,

I believe that day you always dreaded has finally arrived, though why you dread it so much still remains a mystery. You may not believe me if I say this is for your own good, or tell you what could have happened as a result of your insistence, but it is best you never know.

Though it may be hard for you to admit, as it is for me, it is certain that we never had a relationship. You have never truly felt a bond with me, as I have never felt a bond with you. This is why I believe it will be no problem with you or mother, wherever she may be, when I tell you this.

I have permanently left the house, never to return. Do not come looking for me. If you do not harm us, I will not harm you. Those "powers" you warned me about have at last emerged, but there will be no great destruction, and we will make sure of that.

Farewell, father. If we ever cross paths again, do not resent me for my decisions. You may not understand any of what I'm saying, but in thirty years, you will thank me for what I have done. Just try to understand for now.

Sincerely,

Jack

P.S. Thank you for all the gadgets to keep me entertained for the last fourteen years.

-

Mr. Spicer stared at the ink letters dancing before his eyes, and his face grew redder and redder. "What is the meaning of this?" he yelled to himself. "He _ran away?_ Sheesh…I would have rather had him commit suicide. And what's with all this 'we don't have a relationship' and 'this is for your own good' crap? He crumpled the letter and swiftly tossed it into the garbage disposal. "I hate teenagers…" he complained. "Ah, well, maybe now I'll get some peace and quiet."

-

All was quiet on the eastern front. Omi and Clay were sparring out on the lawn, since it was a mild spring day, and they needed to brush up on their skills with a few of the newer Shen-Gong-Wu. "Thorn of the Thunderbolt!" Omi called, gripping the handheld, dagger-like object, and trying to blast Clay with its electric charge.

"Lasso Boa-Boa," Clay easily called, whirling the serpentine rope around his head and catching Omi's thunderbolt.

Omi flipped to another section of the field and decided to use a different Shen-Gong-Wu this time. He pulled out a red, elongated jewel. "Ruby of Ramses!" he said, aiming the item. He used it to move the Lasso Boa-Boa and tie Clay up with it.

Fortunately for him, one of his arms was left loose. "Silk Spinner!" Clay yelled, and in an instant, Omi was all tied up too.

At that moment, Kimiko came walking out, filing her nails, and when she got a look at the two of them, struggling in their bindings, broke into a laugh. "You guys are so pathetic," she joked as she untied them.

Omi immediately jumped back up. "Now, this is my chance to get back at Clay for that unfair trick with the Lasso Boa-Boa!"

"Bring it on, small fry," Clay teased, twirling the Shen-Gong-Wu rope.

"Ruby of Ramses!" Omi called, holding out the jewel.

_Vrooooommmmm__…_

Kimiko raised her eyebrows as she looked at them. "Um…does the Ruby of Ramses always make that noise?"

Omi looked up at her, and then down at the object in his hand. "I don't know…it hasn't been acting strange at all, has it?"

_Vrooommmmmmmm__…putt-putt-putt…_

"Okay, that's definitely not the Ruby of Ramses," Clay confirmed. The three of them looked up as a familiar black and orange craft bobbed along in the sky towards them, pulling a large floating crate.

"It's Jack Spicer! He had returned!" Omi exclaimed.

"And he brought his whole house with him," Kimiko added.

The car slowed to a stop and finally dropped from the sky to land a few feet in front of them. "Augh!" the three Xiaolin Warriors screamed.

"What?" Jack complained, stepping out of the driver's side. "I wasn't going to crush you."

"No!" Omi cried, pointing at the grassy patch underneath the vehicle. "You've just destroyed Master Fung's flower bed!"

Jack just put an arm behind his head, casually. "Well, it's been having trouble landing since I hit Dojo with it…but who cares; the girly man can grow some new flowers."

"So you got permission?" Kimiko asked, though she was a bit offended by the way he had called their master a girly man.

"Yup, I got it all on tape!" Jack proudly replied. He whipped out a miniature tape player and pushed the "play" button down. A few seconds later, they heard his voice through the rumble of silence. "Dad…I need to ask you something…" "…Whaddaya want now?" "DadI wannaleaveandjointheXiaolinTemple! Is that okay?" "……………………Yeah….Surrrrrrrre…"

As he clicked the recorder off, the three Xiaolin Warriors gave him suspicious looks. "And how do we know you didn't just use a voice simulator to tape that? You dad sounds a little robotic…"

"He was just tired," Jack brushed it off. "Besides, I had to get him when he was tired in order to trick him into letting me come." Now, they only looked more suspicious. "I…I mean…ask him…_ask_ him to let me come."

"Well, whatever," Kimiko continued. She walked over to the giant crate on the back of the hover car, and Clay and Omi followed. "What'd you bring all this _junk_ here for?"

Jack quickly jumped in front of her and hugged one of the Jack-bots on the top, protectively. "Don't call them junk! They'll hear you and start crying! …Poor number 42…"

"So…why is this all here? You should have gotten rid of it all; you won't be needing these stu…uh, these evil robots anymore."

At last, Jack let go of Number 42 and turned back to his new teammates, clutching his hands together and trying to look innocent and pleading. "Well…you see…I was kind of hoping you guys could set aside a room where I could…you know…do my work?"

Now Omi, Kimiko, and Clay were giving each other _very _suspicious looks and wondering if this whole thing was just a scheme for him to get in among them for an attack.

"Don't give me those weird looks!" Jack objected, crossing his arms again. "I could _help_ you with my genius mind!"

"Yeah, _sure_," Kimiko replied, never losing her cocked-eyebrow look.

"We'll talk to Master Fung about it," Omi tried to compromise.

"Speaking of Master Fung," Clay spoke up. "We ought to go tell him Jack's here." So the four trooped into the main temple room to meet with their wise old leader.

Though Master Fung did frown a bit when he heard the droning on the tape, he accepted it, and after signing a few papers in the back room, he came back out to announce- "Well, Jack, welcome to the Xiaolin Temple."

Clay and Kimiko cheered and clapped, while Omi unexpectedly clamped onto his leg, and he quickly shook him off.

"But, as usual, there's a few things we need to take care of before we officially admit you," Master Fung continued. Now, Jack was the one who looked suspicious. There was always a catch. "First, we need to do something about those clothes…"

Jack looked down at his ragged trench coat, black pants, and plated boots. "What's wrong with them? I think they look fine! It's my style, you see…"

"Jack…" Omi explained to him. "If you're going to join the temple, you're going to have to wear a uniform."

He froze after hearing this. How could he have let something like that slip his mind? This had actually been his main reason for not joining earlier when Omi first asked him. "Um…" he nervously began, turning back to Master Fung. "Could we make a little…exception…of sorts? I kind of forgot about that requirement. I _really_ don't feel like walking around in a bathrobe…"

Master Fung frowned a bit again, but didn't reply.

"I made a mistake then," Jack said, purposely darkening his voice. "Maybe I _don't _want to be part of this group. If I go back to evil, at least I can wear my own clothes."

The other Xiaolin Dragons, and especially Omi, all chimed in with suggestions. "You don't have to leave. He might make a small exception for you…" "Don't go; we'll let you wear what you want."

Finally, Master Fung spoke after their chatter died down. "I guess its okay. You don't _have _to wear a uniform. But we do have a few dress code rules you'll have to follow."

Jack immediately lit up again. "Cool!" he cried. "So all I have to do when I want something is threaten that I'll go back to the dark side if I don't get it, and you'll give it to me?"

Omi, Kimiko, and Clay gave him dirty looks, knowing that they and Master Fung had just been tricked.

"…I probably shouldn't have said that out loud…" Jack told himself.

"First thing…you'll have to get rid of that coat," Master Fung insisted.

"No problem," Jack complied, unbuckling his HeliPack. After he got out of that, he slipped off his trench coat to reveal a simple black tee-shirt with a white, pointed design on the front, since he hadn't had enough time this morning to find his red, ripped-sleeve Frankenstein shirt.

"…And those gloves…"

Jack grumbled, but removed his black motorcycle gloves, tucking them safely in the pocket of his trench coat, folded neatly on the floor.

"You'll have to change that shirt, too…"

"What?" Jack cried, looking down at his black tee-shirt. "Really, now, there's nothing wrong with this…"

"Whether you're aware of it or not, that symbol on the front signifies witchcraft."

"Well, how am I supposed to know that?" Jack complained, turning to look through a battered suitcase he'd brought in with him. "It's not like they put a little sign on the hanger at the mall that says "this means black magic." Who would buy it then?" He turned around, holding the baggage, and cocking an eyebrow. "If you won't let me wear all that stuff, what _will_ you let me wear?"

"Just nice, decent clothing," Master Fung answered, holding his arms together and trying to look powerful.

Jack rolled his eyes. "How about this?" he desperately suggested, holding up another coat. "I know it looks similar, but it's not a trench coat, if you just have a problem with trench coats…"

Master Fung promptly shook his head.

Jack muttered to himself again and sifted through the suitcase. "Cutoffs?" he asked with a smile, whipping out a long rack of shirts, all with their sleeves ripped off. "I have all different colors, not just red and black…c'mon, please?" Jack didn't even need an answer then, since he could see the angry bulldog face the temple master was giving him. "Okay, no cutoffs," he decided, throwing the pile of shirts over his shoulder. "Now, what else…"

"Aaaaugh!" Omi cried from behind them just before Jack's pile of shirts fell on top of him, completely burying him.

"How about these flame pants?" Jack continued, oblivious as Clay and Kimiko whipped out shovels and began digging Omi out. Another head shake. "Okay, how about this old sweatshirt and these chain pants? They're old and I don't like them, but maybe…"

"Oh, alright," Master Fung finally assented, although he didn't like the skull symbol on the front of the sweatshirt. He didn't think Jack would _have _anything completely decent, anyway. "You may go down that hallway; on the left is a room you can change in. Oh, and one more thing…" Jack froze as he headed over towards the hallway. _Now _what was the matter? "I suggest you get rid of that dreadful face paint."

"Face paint?" Jack tried to object. "Who says it's even face paint? Maybe my skin is just naturally ivory. Yeah, no one has skin this white, but no one has skin as yellow as Omi's either!"

"Hmm?" Omi said, finally managing to poke his head out from inside the shirt pile. "Did someone call me?"

Master Fung raised his eyebrows again. "Jack…_remove__ it_."

"All right…" Jack grudgingly assented, trudging off down the hall as if it were the end of the world. They heard a dull slamming in the distance as he closed the door to the empty room.

"Well…meanwhile, we need to find a place for Jack… We don't have any available spaces…"

"He could stay in Rai's old room for now," Kimiko suggested as she pulled Omi from the pile of shirts. "I mean, we'll need to find somewhere else later, since we _are_ going back to find him…" She seemed very insistent on this, and Clay and Omi stared over at her.

"I guess that could be arranged," Master Fung decided.

"He told us to ask you about a lab room, too," Omi blurted out, and the other two gave him exasperated looks.

"You've got to be kiddin' me," Clay commented.

"Yeah, but we could put some sort of monitoring device on the room, and only let him work on things if they would be to our benefit."

"Well…" Kimiko slowly agreed. "We _could _use some updated technology…"

"I'll see about it," Master Fung simply answered.

A few minutes later, they heard a familiar voice from the corner of the room. "Don't look." And, of course, everyone looked. Jack stood near the head of the room, in the long, wide-bottomed black jeans with red strips around the legs, making X's. Two chains were attached to slits near the bottom, and clinked around his ankles when he walked. His shirt was the black, baggy, hooded sweatshirt with the skull symbol emblazoned on the front. But, the most shocking difference was his normal, light flesh-colored face and freckles.

Omi bit his lip and held his breath.

"Don't you dare laugh!" Jack threatened, pointing an accusing finger at them.

While Omi struggled with his inner chuckling, Kimiko blinked, incredulously at the boy that now stood before her. If it wasn't for the bright red spikes and swirled goggles, she probably wouldn't have been able to recognize him as Jack Spicer. In fact, he looked more like Rai in that sweatshirt. He looked like Rai gone goth…and with freckles. "You have freckles?" she finally managed to ask, in disbelief.

Jack crossed his arms again and turned his head away from them. "Yes, and I hate them! Don't laugh at me!"

"I'm not laughing," Kimiko gently replied. "Actually, I think they're kind of cute. You look better without that vampire paste on."

Jack chanced a glance back at her. Was it his imagination, or had she actually just complimented him? He thought he remembered Julie saying something similar to this when he'd taken off his face paint in the future, too. "Well…" he slowly began to admit. "Maybe you're right. I think I'll leave it off for a while. At least it's less work."

_Who are you?_ Kimiko thought of asking next.

"So, now let's show you to your new room!" Omi cried, breaking the awkward silence that followed. He shifted through the pile of clothing on the floor, almost as if he were looking for something.

"Sure," Jack replied, in a deliberately loud voice. "But I need to gather up my stuff first!" With that, he stepped forwards and shoved his pile of clothes back into the suitcase, along with Omi.

"Jack!" Kimiko cried in disgust. "Let him out of there."

"Who?" he said, faking surprise and confusion. "Let who out of where?"

"Omi!" Kimiko insisted. "Let him out of that suitcase!"

"Omi?" Jack continued to insist. "Why would he be in my suitcase?"

"Hyaaa!" Omi yelled, finally managing to karate-chop his way out. The suitcase exploded and Jack's clothes went flying everywhere.

"Aaaugh!" he yelled, scrambling to retrieve his clothes. "Now look what you've done, you pesky little midget!"

Omi simply looked down into the sea of clothes at his feet, reached down, and pulled something up. "I found them!" he called in victory, holding up a pair of red boxers with smiley faces printed on the fabric.

Jack's face turned red, to match. "P-Put that down!" he yelled, running over to trample the little monk.

Omi turned and sprinted away, waving the underwear, teasingly. "Uh-uh, you have to catch me first! And by that time, everyone in the temple will have seen them!"

Kimiko and Clay chuckled near the doors as they watched Jack chase Omi around the room. "This is going to be interesting," Kimiko commented, suppressing her giggles.

"They fight just like a cat 'n mouse," Clay added.

_Yes, _Kimiko thought, _it's going to be awkward for a long while. It's going to be a long time before we get used to Jack living here… Well, maybe when we get Rai back, we can kick him out somehow…_ Kimiko stopped her thoughts right there. She couldn't believe she'd just seriously though about something like that, but…the thought was strangely comforting to her. She took a deep breath and tried to remain focused on the present. Who even said they would get Rai to come back, anyway? But, still, she hoped that would happen.

-

"Well, here it is," Clay announced as they all stepped into the dormitory hall. It had taken a while to calm Jack and Omi, but somehow, they'd gotten back to their original intention.

"You're going to have to stay in Rai's old room for a while," Kimiko explained. "Until we get Rai back, and then…well, we'll stick you somewhere."

Jack looked around, studying his new surroundings. "Where's my room?" he asked, turning back to question them. "You just said I'd have to stay in Rai's room, so where is it?" Now, he was almost laughing at them. What, were these crazy monks going to make him sleep out in the hallway?

"Right here," Omi clarified, pointing into the cubicle that used to be Rai's. A few scattered posters were still left on the wall, but those could be taken down. The Brazilian boy had left in a hurry and had forgotten to grab those off the wall.

Jack stared at the little space in exasperation. "What? You've got to be _kidding_ me! _This _is my room? Where's the bed? Where's the closets? Drawers? Shelves? I knew you monk-types liked to live the simple life, but…this is ridiculous! It's almost like a Facist cell! But, inside, and with a floor, that is."

"A what?" Kimiko asked as the three of them gave him confused looks.

"Oh…never mind." Jack realized what he had just said, and backed off, since they didn't know anything about that future world. "I can't sleep there!" he continued to insist. "Besides, there's no room for my stuff! Once I put all of my stuff in that little cubicle, they'll be no room for me to sleep in there!"

"Well, make room!" Kimiko argued. "It's not our fault you're such a pack rat!"

"I couldn't just leave behind all my inventions! They may be evil, but I worked hard to create them! …Alright, I probably could get rid of some of these clothes, but…I still want to wear the cutoffs as pajamas! …And I can't get rid of my coat; I spent a lot of time packaging it up and sending it to myself!" Jack pouted and shoved his suitcase into the cubicle. "Well, I guess I'll have to sleep out in the hallway. Too bad for you; I snore really loud, and I'll keep you awake all night!"

"No, you're not!" the hotheaded Kimiko insisted. "You're sleeping in that room tonight. I don't care if you have to sleep on top of all your junk, but you're not keeping us awake just because you couldn't let go of your evil robots!" Unfortunately, the effects of his image makeover were starting to wear off, and he was still the same old Jack Spicer in her eyes.

"Well, I'm going to ask your Master Fiddle-Faddle for a laboratory," Jack decided, turning to storm back off to the meeting room. "I'll just use my begging skills. I was planning on just letting my robots live in my closet, but since I don't even _have _a closet…" He threw a dirty glance over his shoulder, only to receive a dirty glare from Kimiko back.

"He might actually get it," she said to her friends the moment he disappeared around the corner. "Because of what I said about needing updated technology… Stupid, stupid!"

"Don't feel so bad about it," Omi replied. "I also contributed, with my security camera idea." So, none of them were surprised when twenty minutes later, they were helping lug giant robot parts, and piles of tools into an old abandoned room below ground level.

-

The "new Xiaolin Warriors" had struggled through the day together, and now, it was finally time for training in the middle room where Master Fung met with the young Dragons. "Omi, Kimiko, today you will be focusing on your timing, and Clay, incorporating your lasso into attacks." The three of them instantly launched into their attack sequences, as if it were only natural. Jack glanced around at them and remained rooted in place.

"So…" Master Fung finally addressed him, stepping down to look into the boy's eyes. "I don't suppose you've had any martial arts training?"

"Uh…no…" Jack replied, obviously, hanging his head. But a few minutes later, he lifted it again, with a big cheesy smile. "…But I can fake it pretty good!"

Master Fung took a deep breath. "Oh, boy. This is going to take awhile."

Dojo started chuckling up on his shoulder. "Heh…you really look like Omi with that smile…" Jack forced his mouth down into a droopy frown as soon as he heard this.

Master Fung shook his head. "I don't think I'm going to start this all on the first day, so…why don't we just work on your Silver Shield for now."

"Silver Shield?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow at his new master.

"Yes. It's a special defensive ability that only the Dragon of Metal can use. Dojo tells me you've already used it once against Wuya." While he was talking, the other Xiaolin Warriors slowly stopped in the middle of their training to listen to the conversation. "In fact, your mother developed this technique herself…"

Jack focused and looked up at the stained glass art of his mother gesturing protectively above them. While Master Fung was still babbling on and on about the attack's magical origins, he lifted his arms and tried to replicate her pose. "Silver Shield!" he called, expecting to produce some kind of magic barrier and impress everyone. Nothing happened. "Rrrrrgh… Not this again! The same thing happened when I came back from the future. My powers just stopped working…"

"Well, maybe it _would_ be working if you were paying attention!" Dojo snapped.

"You're one to talk," Jack shot back. "You were falling asleep just a minute ago!"

"Well, maybe I was, but I'm not the one who needs to pay attention!"

"Y'know, I like you a lot better in the future."

"Look, this isn't the future, kid, so wake up!"

While the two of them continued to argue back and forth, Kimiko let her mind wander. Jack had said that he had been to a horrible future world, and the reason he was here was to prevent it from happening. She wondered if she'd been in that world at all, and what she looked like and acted like in the future, but he didn't seem to want to talk about it. It must have really been terrible…

"You three!" Master Fung spoke up again, turning to Omi, Clay, and Kimiko. "I never asked you to stop."

"Oh, right!" all three of them replied, launching back into their training routines again.

"Now, Jack…" the temple master continued, turning back. "As I was _attempting _to explain to you earlier, the Silver Shield isn't an ability that you can conjure with words. You must feel it in your heart, and then just let it flow out through your fingers."

Jack rolled his eyes. "That sounds like something out of a Hallmark card," he muttered to himself.

"Now, position your hands like this…" He shivered as Master Fung gripped his arms and guided them into the right spots. He wasn't too comfortable with an unfamiliar man touching him like this, but thankfully, he released them a second later. "Now…try to remember what you felt like when you produced it before, and just…let it flow through your body…"

Jack felt like an idiot, standing there with his eyes closed and his hands extended at a right angle. If he remembered correctly, that hadn't been where they were when he'd made that weird barrier that Wuya slammed into. All this talk of "feeling it in his heart" and "letting it flow out" was only making him feel stupider. He tried to remember what he'd been thinking when Wuya charged at him, but it was just impossible. The more he tried, the more awkward he felt.

Eventually, Master Fung even had Dojo morph into a scaly green replica of Wuya and fly towards him. "Ow!" the transformed dragon cried when he slammed into Jack's goggles.

"Did I do it?" he asked, hopefully opening his eyes.

"Do what?" Dojo asked, rubbing his tentacle-covered head as it morphed back into a dragon head. "No, you didn't succeed in making the Silver Shield, but you definitely succeeded in bruising my head…owwww…" Dojo hovered near him for a moment, expecting an angry comeback, but Jack just lowered his arms and sighed.

"…This is useless," he decided, turning to head back to the dormitory hallway.

Kimiko, Omi, and Clay immediately stopped their training routine, and Master Fung at last let them go to follow him. It looked like this was going to take even longer than he'd thought.

-

"Okay, we've got a new schedule list now," Clay announced, handing out sheets of paper to the other three. "...Guess I got statue duty again…"

Jack looked, confusedly down at his sheet. It was a typed calendar. Each day of the week had a time on it, followed by each of their names, with a specific task. For example, today, it read: 5:00- Clay Bailey- dust statues, Kimiko Toho- cook dinner, Omi- clean the upstairs chambers, Jack Spicer- sweep the downstairs meeting hall. "Ch-ch-ch-chores?" he cried in alarm. "I have to go sweep some stupid meeting hall? You never told me about this earlier!"

"Well, of course," Omi replied. "You have to do chores around the temple to earn your keep. It's only fair."

"Depends on who you're asking. I certainly don't think it's fair. I've _never_ had to do any chores at home."

"Because you're a spoiled brat, just like Kimiko!" Omi replied, with a smile.

"What did you say?" Kimiko and Jack said at the same time, looming, threateningly over the little monk.

"Eh heh…nothing, nothing!"

"Actually, you should be grateful, Jack," Kimiko spoke up as she turned away from Omi. "You got the easiest job today. The meeting room is pretty big, but there's hardly any furniture, so it should be no problem to sweep it. …I have to cook…" She frowned at her impending task.

"Okay, okay," Jack finally complied. He looked back down at the schedule for the rest of the week. "…But some of this is going to have to change," he added when he noticed that on Thursday, he was the one cooking dinner.

"And one more thing about the chores…" Clay spoke up, slipping a small, circular piece of metal out of his pocket. "…You're allowed to use Shen-Gong-Wu! Mantis Flip Coin!" With that, the blond cowboy went whirling through the air, pulling out a duster, and clearing off the hard-to-reach statues near the ceiling.

After his little demonstration, Kimiko, Omi, and Jack all rushed to the vault, and squabbled over the other useful items. Once Omi and Jack grabbed the same Shen-Gong-Wu, and were so caught up in the moment that they almost challenged each other to showdown, but soon remembered that they were on the same side now.

Finally, Kimiko ended up with the Third Arm Sash, so she could do more things in the kitchen at once. Omi grabbed the Shard of Lightning, so he could get all of his work done in a short amount of time.

Jack got a hold of the Sword of the Storm, which he believed would help him blow away all the dirt in the meeting room. Unfortunately, it also broke the only table in the room into two pieces, and he got a little lecture from Master Fung afterwards. Something would definitely have to be done about this for tomorrow…

-

"Well, partners, it's time to hit the hay," Clay announced as he led everyone towards the dormitory hallway.

"Agreed," Omi replied. "Today was a most tiresome one." He slipped into his cubicle, which was the last in the row.

Jack, however, stopped in his tracks and pulled up his sleeve to look at his digital watch (since he couldn't read real clocks). "It's only 8:30!" he cried in exasperation. "Do you _always _go to bed this early?"

"Um, yeah…" Kimiko replied, flashing an odd glance over at him. "What time do _you_ usually go to bed?"

"Whenever I get too tired to concentrate anymore."

"That's not good for you," Omi criticized, poking his head out of his thin paper "door casing". "One needs plenty of sleep to be strong and alert for the next day, and especially in our stage of development…"

"He sounds like a doctor," Kimiko commented.

"Well, other brilliant inventors like me only sleep a few minutes all through the day, so I think my sleeping patterns are just a sign of my genius."

Everyone else just rolled their eyes.

"Well, you can go to bed if you want, but I'm going downstairs. …I've got to work on a few devices to better guard the Vault."

"Hey…" Kimiko said, as she slowly began to realize it for the first time. "Now that you're on our side…and Wuya's trapped in that Soul Scepter…just what are we defending the Shen-Gong-Wu vault _from_?" They looked blankly at each other, wondering the same thing themselves and wondering why they hadn't thought about that before.

"Ehheheheh…" Jack falsely chuckled to himself as he scratched his head, sheepishly. "Good question!" The three Xiaolin Warriors rolled their eyes at him again.

"Well, g'night, Jack," Kimiko mumbled. "Just don't stay up all night. We've got training tomorrow at 7:00."

Jack froze. "_AM?_" he cried. "Geez…crazy monks. Who gets up at 7:00 if they don't go to school?"

"And then we have our lessons at 8:00…" Kimiko was still talking to herself, half to inform Jack, and half to frighten him. "Darn, I forget to do my homework. Master Sensi will be mad at me…"

"…Lessons? Homework? I can't take it anymore!" With that, Jack finally turned and stormed down a staircase a little ways to the back of the temple. He came to a wooden door, marked with a special sign he'd made himself.

It had gone through a small revision, but it still looked good at this new spot. The sign, which had once read "Jack Spicer's Evil Laboratory" in black, pointed letters, now had the prefix "Non" splashed over "Evil" in red paint to read "Jack Spicer's Non-Evil Laboratory."

Inside, everything was arranged rather sloppily, and at first he set to work reorganizing the steel cabinets, desks, and leftover scrap metal. He had an entire bureau devoted to tools in one end, and in the other was his cabinet full of Jack-bots. Next he cleared off a large, shiny table, where he would actually work, and hooked up his gigantic, lighting-fast research computer. But ironically, after he started it up, it loaded like a snail, and he realized that he had a lot of things to delete out of the memory, like video files of reference "examples", mapmaking programs, and loads of Wuya junk.

"Well, there's my challenge list," he said to himself and took a moment to print that out before deleting everything in the folder.

There was an additional feature that he had usually hooked up to the closet he stored the Shen-Gong-Wu in. It allowed him, for example, to just press the indicated button for "Monkey Staff" and the Monkey Staff would come shooting out of the cabinet at him, if it was in his possession. There was no need for that anymore, since his Shen-Gong-Wu just went into the vault along with the others'. _But maybe, _Jack slowly realized, _I could set up a system like this for the Vault. So at least I really will be doing something for them, besides…_

He let his thoughts wander off and watched the items flashing by on the monitor as he held down the "Delete" key. He had to delete practically everything off this computer in order to purge it of its former evil ways. He even deleted his ages old screensaver of the Grim Reaper. After this wiping out of data, it looked almost blank and empty. Well…it was time to begin his new work.

Just then, right as Jack was about to start plotting out the first of his new devices, he glanced up and happened to notice a night vision camera mounted on the wall above. That was right. They _had _said something about monitoring him so that they could make sure he was only working on things that would be beneficial to them. Oh, well…

There was a power cord dangling out of the back of the camera and tucked up to the room above this one. Obviously, the Xiaolin Warriors hadn't had much time to set up an appropriate security camera. This one didn't even follow his movements.

Jack carefully crept into a blind spot next to the tools bureau and fished out a pair of wire cutters. He tiptoed back over to the camera and with one snip of the large scissors, chopped the power cord in two. "Oooop-sies," he said to himself with a familiar, crafty grin.

Then, finally, while the other Xiaolin Dragons were peacefully snoozing above, Jack picked up a pile of old metal- the embodiment of his powers- and began to design something entirely new out of it.


	10. Xiaolin Dragons Reunited

Nothing belongs to me except Marylyn Orre, Henry Spicer, and Leandra.

Yes, all these ending chapters are treats. This one is a treat for all you Rai fans…because he finally makes an appearance! I really did want Rai in the story for these last parts. I made up everything about his family…hope it isn't terribly wrong. Near the end, you'll get to see what Jack was making last chapter. I know the ability of the Rag of Resurrection has been done before, but it was actually my first made-up Shen-Gong-Wu and I wanted to include it. There's something about a random "meteorite" falling further on, and that will be explained if I do a sequel. And yes, right before the end, I am poking fun at the Rai/Jack pairing. Actually, some Rai/Jack isn't that bad, but when it goes beyond kissing, it just freaks me out… So, in this fic, they're just going to be friends. Besides, all the Jack/Kim stuff comes next chapter!

I want to thank Funkmaster, since I don't think I ever thanked him… From now on, I won't delete spoilers and references to S2, but I'll put signs like this:

(SPOILER) (sentence or paragraph) (SPOILER) or (REFERENCE) (sentence or paragraph) (REFERENCE) so that you can skip these sentences/paragraphs if you so choose. I hope this system will work smoothly and without too much confusion and problems. Enjoy anyway!

(-)

Chapter 10: Xiaolin Dragons Reunited

Morning had come again. Unfortunately. A frustrated Kimiko stood outside of the wooden door just at the bottom of the stairs where she'd been waiting for the last five minutes. She rapped against it a fourth time for good measure, before yelling, "Jack! Get out here already! It's 6:45! You're going to miss breakfast!" She figured that would definitely do the trick. Yet there was still no response from inside the "non-evil laboratory".

She thought she heard dull scraping and thumping noises somewhere in the distance. He sure was taking a long time to get ready. "Helloooooo!" Kimiko called again. "Geez, aren't you ready _yet_?" Still nothing.

She growled again and crossed her arms. Alright, that was it. She was finally fed up with playing this waiting game with her noncompliant new teammate. Kimiko reached out and began to turn the door handle. He was probably listening to screaming loud music and couldn't hear her, or he was too wrapped up in whatever he was doing on his computer to notice anything around him.

However, the instant the door began to click open, Jack's voice came out, loud and with a frantic tone. "D-Don't come in here! I…I'm not wearing pants!"

Kimiko flushed red and slammed the door closed. "Ugh…" she groaned to herself, now leaning against it and feeling sick. For one odd and disturbing moment, she wondered what underwear Jack was wearing if it weren't the smiley-face ones.

Thankfully, a few minutes later he struggled out of the lab doors, in the same cargo chain pants and skull sweatshirt. In fact, it didn't even look like he'd taken them off at all. So why had he…? "Eh…sorry about that," he mumbled, strangely trying to catch his breath. "I didn't get much sleep last night… I'm working on a new Shen-Gong-Wu ordering system for the vault…" Suddenly, he yawned loudly and cut off his sentence.

"Well, I told you not to stay up too late," Kimiko argued, grabbing him by the sleeve and almost dragging him up the stairs. "Come on. We're having breakfast out on the porch."

When the two of them reached the mat under the overhanging outside, Omi and Clay were already sitting at the low table, naturally, eating and discussing something about the day's duties.

Kimiko sat on another end, and Jack mindlessly followed her to sit beside her. She grabbed something out of the basket at the center of the table, and turned to her new shadow. "You want an omelet sandwich, Jack?" she asked.

"Nah," he replied, rubbing one of his bleary, dark eyes. "What else've you got?"

Kimiko froze. Clay stopped chewing, and Omi even stopped talking. "Er…today's egg day," Clay at last explained. "The only things we _have_ are egg products."

"You're joking…" Jack said, stunned but tired at the same time. "Come on, you've got to have other breakfast stuff in the Xiaolin Temple refrigerator, or wherever you keep it."

The other three shook their heads, and stared at him with wide eyes. "Yeah, we do, but…" Kimiko slowly began. "We're supposed to save it for a different day…like pancake day tomorrow."

"Well, go and get it out!" Jack tried to order them. "I'm hungry; I want some breakfast."

"You could just eat an omelet sandwich," Kimiko objected.

"But I don't _like_ omelets!" Jack complained back. "They're nasty! I hate eggs!" The atmosphere fell silent. It was the first time anyone had dared to say anything bad about the food Master Fung had cooked. "Well…" Jack finally stated again, suddenly remembering that horrible Facist camp in the future world. He hesitantly reached forward, and at last grabbed an omelet sandwich. "…I hated oranges, too."

Kimiko, Omi, and Clay continued to stare, and you could almost see the question marks above their heads as Jack forced himself to take a bite of the sandwich. _Oranges_ They shared the same thought length. _What has any of this got to do with oranges?_

"What?" Jack spoke up again, glancing up at them. "_What?_"

"You're acting weird," Kimiko explained.

"Yeah…" Clay hesitantly added. "Last I remembered, there were no oranges anywhere around here…"

"Oh!" Jack responded, realizing what he had said again. "Never mind. If I say weird things like that sometimes, just ignore me, okay?" The future was still bothering him all the time and he kept blurting out things from the future that the Xiaolins wouldn't understand. Well, how could it _not _be still bothering him? That had only been two days ago. So much had happened since then; it seemed like a lot longer. As those horrific events ran through his memory again, he threw aside his omelet sandwich and stood up from the chair-less table.

"Hey, where are you going?" Kimiko quickly responded in concern. "You only had one bite. You don't want the rest?"

"Nah," Jack softly replied. "I'm not hungry anymore. I'm going back down to my lab for a little while." The other Xiolain Dragons stared as he shuffled back into the temple and down the stairs on the left.

"Who was that?" Omi finally voiced his thoughts, holding his sandwich up.

"My thoughts exactly," Kimiko agreed. She continued to look down that hall with a slightly worried expression crinkling her forehead.

(-)

After breakfast, it was time for the morning training session, naturally. While Clay, Omi, and Kimiko were all outside, practicing with new Shen-Gong-Wu moves together, Master Fung kept Jack in the main, wooden training room with him and Dojo for special lessons.

"Okay…" the bald, blue-eyed man began, sucking in a deep breath and preparing for the long work ahead of him. "…Since you're new to this, Jack, we'll just start with a few basic kung-fu positions first…" Soon, he had him copying different sitting postures, relaxed standing positions, attack and defense positions, and also a few basic principles, like paralyzing, avoidance, and pressure points.

"Geez," Jack commented after his new master finally announced that his first beginner lesson was over. "How am I supposed to remember to do all that stuff when some enemy is trying to attack me?"

"If you keep an open mind, it will come to you."

Jack snorted to himself. The others would always scold him for making noises at their leader like this, but everything that came out of this guy's mouth was always so…corny. How could he _not_ laugh at a statement like that?

"Well…" Master Fung slowly decided as he looked over at a handed clock on the opposite wall. "…We've still got a little more time; what do you say we move on and try a few simple moves? I know you've had no experience with this, but…"

"Actually," Jack hesitantly spoke up, remembering his actions in that future world. "I did a pole vault, and I flipped over my…uh, someone's head, and I did this weird spinning thing and kicked the people that were trying to capture me… I don't know how I did all that, though."

"Really?" Master Fung stated, placing his bearded chin in his hand, interestingly. "Hmm…this is different. I always enjoy training Dragons of Metal, because each one has always had a unique power…"

Jack obviously wasn't listening, because by this time, he would have been agreeing and going off on a long gloat. "Ermmmmmm…" He at last attempted to reply. "…Could we finish tomorrow? I'm really tired."

"Of course," Master Fung replied, turning his back and beginning to walk away. "I have a few things to figure out, anyway."

Dojo, however, turned around on his shoulder to keep an eye on their new, suspicious member. Jack slowly closed his eyes, and curled into one of the sitting positions on the carpet, trying to pretend he was practicing while he took a nap. Dojo smirked a little to himself before the scene disappeared behind a block of concrete that was part of the door frame.

(-)

By afternoon, everyone had fairly gotten back to normal. It was only a moment after lunch, which today, was rice. Jack forced himself to finish it, since he hadn't had much of a breakfast, but not before making it known to the rest of the world that he hated rice even more than omelets.

Now, Clay was creating a new figurine by tying piles of hay together at different angles. It was beginning to resemble a horse now. Omi was reading out of an ancient Chinese method book, out loud, and of course they couldn't understand a word of what he was saying. Jack was just laying his head against the low table and trying to catch a few extra Z's.

Kimiko was trying out a new, swept-up hairstyle and studying the effects in her hand mirror. "Hey, what do you think of this style?" she asked, pulling away from the reflecting surface.

"It doesn't matter to me," Clay replied. "However you like it is fine."

"Omi?" Kimiko asked for his input.

"Huh?" the young monk replied, breaking out of his Chinese trance.

"What do you think of my new hairstyle?"

"…What new hairstyle?"

Kimiko rolled her eyes. She should have known better. When Omi was in one of those concentrating, Chinese modes, he didn't notice anything else around him. "Jack?" she tried next, though she figured he was sleeping and would only make fun of her hair if he did respond at all. She just wanted some acknowledgement that her hair had changed at all.

At last, Jack lifted his cheek from the smooth tabletop and blinked his bleary eyes at her. He waited a moment for her to come into focus, before blurting out, "No. I like your hair better when it's down and straight, like…" Thankfully, this time he managed to catch himself before he referenced the future again. He'd been just about to say "like Julie's", but Julie didn't even exist. She probably never would exist.

"Like what?" Kimiko asked, confusedly.

"Never mind," Jack replied, laying his head back down on the table.

The frustrated Japanese girl was just about to yell at them and force some positive response out of them, but stopped to look into her hand mirror. "You know," she finally decided. "I don't like it either." And then she pulled the bands out of her hair and let it fall down her back. Jack perked up again, and stared at her for a few moments before she got her hair back up in pigtails.

At last, they all looked up when they heard a crashing in the distance coming in their direction. "Yo," Dojo suddenly spoke up as he slinked his way into the room. "We've got another Shen-Gong-Wu, you guys!"

"Wow, you seem so calm about it," Jack commented, looking up from the table for a moment. "Wuya always used to break out and go…" He suddenly heightened and purposely scratched his voice, while curling his hands in his best Wuya impression. "…Aagh! Jack! Another Shen-Gong-Wu has just revealed itself!" …or something like that."

Kimiko and Omi chuckled. "You know her pretty well from being around her so long, huh?" Omi said, almost picturing Wuya saying what he had just said.

"Yeah…" Jack answered. "…I'm glad to be rid of her, though…even though I am going to miss the way she used to say blast…" He switched back to his Wuya voice for a moment to yell, "Blast!" and the three Xiaolin Warriors all broke into light laughter.

"Um…hello there!" Dojo called, knocking on an invisible door in front of him. "Xiaolin Dragons! We have a Shen-Gong-Wu to snatch here!"

"Aw, what's the rush?" Clay objected, crossing his legs and laying back in his chair. "Wuya's trapped in that scepter and Jack's on our side. There's no hurry to get the Wu before anybody else."

"True…" Dojo commented, running out of excuses to make them all shut up and listen to him. "But…but what if some normal person stumbled across it and used it wrongly? …Not that this one _can _be used wrongly…it's not in any way dangerous, but…we still need to go get it, stat!"

Omi raised a long, thin eyebrow. "What does any of this have to do with statistics? Dojo, you're beginning to say weird things, like Jack…"

"It means, 'right away'!" Kimiko explained, getting a little fed up with his obliviousness. "I would think you would at least know that."

Dojo spontaneously pulled out the magical Shen-Gong-Wu scroll and unrolled its ends to reveal a swirling blue design in the middle. "This one is called the Rag of Resurrection," he explained, and as he said the name, 'Rag of Resurrection' appeared in fancy black letters under the round blue vortex. Two people figures appeared in the vortex and began to move around. One of them fell down and broke his leg, while the other pulled out a sheet and draped it over his companion. The second person's leg was instantly fixed, and the two of them walked away. "As you can see from the illustration, it has the power to heal anyone or fix anything that is broken," Dojo continued. "And from the strange, dry itch I'm getting under my chin, it's located in Brazil!"

The new Xiaolin Warriors gave each other odd, disgusted looks. Kimiko was the first one to realize what this truly meant. "Brazil!" she cried. "Do you think it's with Raimundo!"

"It's a possibility," Dojo answered her. "Which is precisely why we need to leave, stat! After he's been there for the last month or so, who knows who's side he's on?"

"But…I just got an e-mail from him three days ago," Kimiko objected. "He sounded completely normal in the message- he was saying how he's working on a new circus trick with his family."

"Yes, but who can tell?" Dojo insisted. "Rai's a chronic turncoat, and we can never be sure of anything, especially with him being away for so long…"

"Rai's a _what?_" Omi asked, baffled once again.

"A chronic turncoat," Clay repeated. "It's someone who keeps switching sides."

"Am I a chronic turncoat too?" Jack wondered aloud. "Except I have no coat now…"

"Let's put it this way…" Kimiko spoke up. "We hope you're not a chronic turncoat _anymore_."

"Well, let's get going!" Dojo cried. "No more discussion!" He instantly morphed into his thirty-foot form and this time slammed into a wooden post holding up the awning outside.

"_Dojo_," Omi scolded, stepping up to pull the large dragon's flattened head away from the pole. "What has Master Fung told you about transforming inside the temple?"

Dojo grinned sheepishly. "I'm overly eager for this Shen-Gong-Wu…it's tingling in all kinds of weird places!"

The Xiaolin Warriors once again simultaneously wrinkled their noses, but climbed aboard their reptilian friend after grabbing their Shen-Gong-Wu. Dojo zoomed off, and everyone looked out into the blue sky ahead. Ahead of them lay Brazil. And ahead of them lay Raimundo and their next challenge.

(-)

Dojo finally touched down right outside a colossal circus tent. Its red-and-white stripes converged at two points where the long poles held the covering up. A large crowd of South Americans were gathering in front of it, mostly families with children. Fortunately, this time Dojo remembered to land behind a rock on the opposite side of the tent so no one would get suspicious.

"It _is_…" Kimiko said to herself as she surveyed the area. This was exactly how it had been described in that e-mail…large, red-and-white striped, with trailers lined up in the back, and families milling about at the entrance line. "This is Rai's circus troupe!"

"Well, that's funny," Omi commented. "Little did he know, he had a Shen-Gong-Wu right up his nose!"

"Eew," Kimiko commented. "You mean 'right under his nose'."

"Yes, that too!"

"So, d'ya think we should get Rai's assistance for this one?"

"Yeah, of course," Kimiko replied, slipping off Dojo and landing, gracefully on the dusty ground. "He may even know where it is. He didn't say anything about it in his e-mails, but maybe he's keeping it a secret from us."

"Which is another factor supporting him being a chronic turncoat," Dojo commented.

"Let's go meet him in the back," Clay suggested. "Judging from the crowd outside, I'd say the circus hasn't started yet." He jumped down on the other side of the Japanese girl.

"Yes, let us go and speak to him!" Omi added, landing softly on the other side. The three of them nodded at each other and began to sprint away in the direction of the trailers.

"Hey, wait!" Dojo yelled, halting them in their tracks. "You forgot something!" He shook his tail and flung a sleeping Jack to the dusty ground beside him.

He instantly awoke and began coughing out the sand in his mouth. "Ugh…are we there yet?" he asked as he slowly lifted his throbbing head.

"Yeah, we're here! We've _been_ here for the last five minutes," Kimiko snapped. "If you hadn't fallen asleep on the ride over, you would've known that!"

Jack shrugged. "It was boring, and I was tired, so…"

"You've been tired all day," Kimiko argued, as she unwillingly reached down to help him up. "It's like you didn't even sleep last night."

"No, no, I was just taking one of my thirty-minute genius naps," Jack quickly replied.

"I thought it was five minutes…" Kimiko argued back under her breath. "Never mind!" she cried aloud to everyone else. "C'mon, guys, let's go get Rai!"

Excited and enthusiastic, Omi, Kimiko, and Clay resumed their sprint towards the trailer convention, with Jack following, reluctantly behind. As they approached the stationary traveling houses, a pair of men with "Zephyr Bros. Circus staff" printed on their fuchsia tee-shirts stepped up just in front of them.

"Where do you think you're going, kids?" the first one on the right stated. "Only authorized personnel are allowed beyond this point."

"Please," Kimiko begged, staring innocently up at the men, and trying to manipulate them. "We have an important message for one of the performers. His name is Raimundo Pedrosa…"

"Sorry," the second man spoke up, crossing his arms, defiantly. "No one is allowed to see the Great Pedrosas, especially so soon before a performance. If you need to talk to him that badly, perhaps you can catch him after the show."

Kimiko sighed. Rai was _right there_; he was probably one of the closest trailers to them, and for a moment, she considered just trying to run past the men to see him, but fortunately, she knew better than that. So, the three disheartened Xiaolin Warriors turned around and headed back towards the rock that Dojo was hiding behind.

"_What_?" Jack cried when he saw them walking back. "All that walking for _nothing_? …I could have slept a little longer…"

"We have to wait until the circus is over," Kimiko complained, as she hung her head.

"Hey…" Clay suggested to his disappointed teammates. "Why don't we all go see the show? We have to wait until the end anyway."

"Yeah, that would be great!" Omi agreed, excitedly. "I have never seen a circus before!"

Even Kimiko began to cheer up. "Great idea, Clay! It would be cool to see Rai in one of his performances!"

"Yeah, I want to go too!" Dojo exclaimed, shrinking into 'gecko' form.

"Come on, Jack!" Omi called over to their tired goth partner. Jack sighed again and rolled his eyes. Somehow, he always got dragged into things like this… Soon, Clay was at the window, paying for their four circus tickets, and they settled into the sea of children and parents near the tent-flap entrance.

The circus staff opened up a portion of the tent and sent out a group of clowns to entertain the crowd as they set up. One with green, curly hair and a bright, clashing outfit stepped up beside Omi and watered his head with his squirting flower.

Suddenly, Kimiko and Clay heard a terrible, high-pitched scream from behind them, and whipped around to see Jack barreling towards them. He literally jumped on Clay and clung to his neck for dear life. Clay looked, uncomfortably up at him. "Uh…what's the matter there, partner? You're actin' like you've seen a ghost."

"C-C-Clowns!" Jack stuttered, squeezing Clay a little harder. "I'm…_terrified _of clowns! Clowns are the scariest things in the world!"

(REFERENCE)

"…Aside from being flushed down the toilet," Kimiko added for him.

"Yeah, aside from…" His face suddenly turned red. "Wait, how did you…?"

(REFERENCE)

"Yea! Yea!" Omi cried as the men at the tent flaps began to usher the crowd of people in. "The circus is starting! C'mon, everyone, the circus is starting!"

"At least I don't feel so awkward about coming here," Kimiko commented. "He's acting just like a little kid. We can pretend he's our little brother."

The clown group waved to their customers and ducked back into the circus tent, so Jack slowly relaxed and allowed Clay to breathe again. "Maybe you ought to stay out here and wait for us," Kimiko told him. "This _is _a circus; there's bound to be a clown act…"

"No, I think I'll be okay," Jack replied, panting and trying to calm down. "As long as they keep them in their cages…"

Clay and Kimiko gave him odd looks, but continued to follow Omi into the circus tent. The lights were dimmed inside the tent, and only a small portion of the ring was lit by a spotlight, on the platform where the ringleader would appear.

They had a brief squabble when Omi wanted to sit in they very first row, and Jack wanted to sit way in the back. They ended up taking seats somewhere in the middle, and a few minutes later after everyone was settled, the show began.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages. Welcome to the astounding display of the Zephyr Brothers' traveling circus…" the voice on the translation machine sounded terribly boring as it droned on and on. The man was speaking in Spanish, but the speakers on the sides were translating his speech into English, for all of the English spectators. Thankfully, the blaring music came on a minute or so later, or else Jack would have fallen asleep again, in his seat.

As usual, a parade of horses, elephants, and acrobatic bareback riders came parading around the ring, to welcome them. Kimiko squinted, and thought she might have seen Rai somewhere among them, but she wasn't sure, and never got a chance to get a good look at the boy.

Up first were the animal displays. A lady in a sequined outfit commanded a group of three elephants who did tracks together. Then, a second lady, in a similar sequined outfit guided two performing tigers. Kimiko endured through the motorcycle riders, the tightrope walkers, and even held her breath and let Jack cling to her as the clowns did several comedic routines.

"You're such a coward," she complained under his black sweatshirt.

"B-But they're _scary_!" he cried, trying to bury his face in her shoulder.

"Aw, poor baby," Kimiko joked, reaching over to purposely mess up his hair. "You think you'll live? Oh no, maybe the scary clowns will eat you!"

When she said that, Jack began to realize it. Maybe he _was _being a little ridiculous. He lifted his head from her shoulder for a moment. Well, the clowns hadn't blown anything up yet, so he figured he was safe.

Then finally, the droning translator on the side of the stage made the announcement. "This family of acrobats has been performing with us for generations. Please give a warm welcome to- the Amazing Pedrosas!"

A man stepped up on the platform, wearing a white and blue leotard. Was this Rai's father? Kimiko wondered, and kept close watch in order to find out. After the man finished his routine, a slim brown-haired woman stepped up next to him, and the two began to perform trapeze tricks together. And was she Rai's mother? They were awfully good, flipping and catching each other in midair.

Then, a young man entered the ring and began to perform various contortion exercises, and then to catch his mother and father as they fell from the trapeze. But…this wasn't Rai. He looked much older, maybe 18 or 19, even though he had the same brown hair and green eyes.

At last, a shorter figure stepped up next to the guy, and Kimiko's heart skipped a beat. That was most definitely Rai, and for a moment, she thought he was looking straight at her. She hadn't seen him in so long that it was a surprise to her just to see him at all. He looked strong and toned in his leotard, and even more so when he launched into a flying, flipping routine with what she now surmised was his older brother. Then, finally, a little girl, about 9 or 10 joined them for the finale.

"That's cute," Kimiko commented to her friends as she furiously clapped for them. "I never knew Rai had a little sister, or even an older brother." She could barely sit through the rest of the circus. A few more animal exhibits came next, with the standard 'shooting-out-of-a-cannon' trick.

The instant the lights swept away and the ringleader announced the end of the show, Kimiko stood up and made a beeline for the entrance. Jack zoomed after her, only because the clowns were now coming up into the stands to entertain the audience as they exited.

Omi was still staring in fascination at the empty ring, and Clay had to grab him and carry him away before they lost Jack and Kimiko in the crowd. The four of them bumped and jostled their way through the sea of circus goers, despite the cries of "hey watch it" and "wait your turn, kids". At last, they reached the other side of the tent, and…there they were.

"Rai!" Kimiko called, desperately. She could see the glittering white-and-blue uniforms of the Pedrosa family in the distance, amongst some of the other performers. "Hey, Raimundo!" Wherever the boy was in that crowd, he couldn't hear her voice at all.

Jack finally realized that he should be far enough away from the clowns by now, and fell onto the dusty ground, panting. Clay whizzed past him, holding Omi under one arm like a package.

They were a little closer now… The amorphous clump of people soon parted a bit, as some went off to their trailers. At last, Kimiko had a full view of Raimundo in his acrobat leotard. The rest of his family was walking a bit ahead of him, while he lingered back, chatting with one of the bird handlers. Kimiko stopped running when bits of their conversation began to enter her earshot.

"Oh…yeah, that one bit me on the wrist," the girl was saying. "I knew it was a little too early to be using the new falcons in the show…" She was around their age, with dark chestnut-brown hair, tied up in a shimmering ponytail for the circus. Her tanned skin and Spanish accent indicated that she was also a native Brazilian.

"Hey, no problemo," Rai replied, fishing something out of a slim pocket on his costume. "If you wanted me to fix it, you could have just said so…"

Kimiko gasped. Rai was holding a silvery scrap of fabric that seemed to glow with internal power. It looked vaguely familiar, and in that instant, she knew.

"Oh, it's okay," the Brazilian girl replied, trying to wave the object away. "It's only a minor bite. That thing should only be used for emergencies…"

Kimiko's heart thudded against her chest as she watched Rai take the girl's hand, and hold it up in a gentlemanlike fashion. "If something hurt you, than it's always an emergency to me."

The girl blushed.

"Rag of Resurrection!" he called, and placed the fabric strip over a red gash on her hand. An instant later, he pulled it off, and the wound had completely disappeared.

Kimiko felt the rage surge up inside her, but fought to keep it inside. How dare he…? How could he not tell her so many things…that he had the Rag of Resurrection…and a _girlfriend_! Secretly, in the back of her mind, Kimiko thought that someday she might have a chance with him…how could he crush her hopes like this?

At last, Clay and Omi caught up with her, and the large blond cowboy screeched to a stop. "Run, Clay run!" Omi yelled up at him. "Kimiko is about to blow up her bottom!"

"That's 'blow her top'" Clay corrected, "and I think you're right. Geez, Kimiko, what's all the fuss about?"

When she heard her friends behind her, Kimiko took a deep breath and tried to get back to normal. She shouldn't be acting this way…it wasn't like Rai had been her boyfriend at any time at the temple…and he had never let on that he liked her in the way she liked him. She sighed. "It's nothing. C'mon, let's go talk to Rai; he's got the Rag of Resurrection."

"Really?" Dojo spoke up, popping up from behind Clay's cream-colored cowboy hat. "That's why it felt so weird….it was already in his possession. Oooh… Hurry up and go get it from him, will ya?"

Finally, Jack came trudging up next to them, covered in dust. "Have you found that stupid Wu yet?" he complained. "I actually can't wait to go back to the temple."

"Raimundo has it," Omi filled him in. "We have to go get it from him, but Kimiko's freaking up for some reason… Uh, Clay, you can put me down now." The cowboy complied, lowering the little monk to the ground.

"_Raimundo_!" Kimiko shrieked in anger and frustration. At last, that seemed to catch his attention.

The brown-haired boy glanced over at them, and his jaw dropped in astonishment. Obviously, he hadn't expected to see any of his old temple friends here, and especially to see Kimiko giving him that enraged glare. It felt like so long since he'd last seen them.

One night, when the other Xiaolin Dragons were training, Rai was looking through his mail and realized how much his family back in Brazil were missing him, while the Xiaolin Apprentices still felt awkward and uncomfortable around him. He wasn't needed here, he'd decided at that moment; he was most needed at home, where he could better himself as an athlete and an acrobat.

So, that night, he hastily packed up his things and jumped on the next plane to South America. He hadn't bothered to say good-bye to the Xiaolin Warriors, because he knew they'd only try to stop him, and probably succeed. Things were better this way, he'd had to tell himself for the longest time, and he had been starting to believe it, but now their reappearance could ruin everything.

Nevertheless, Rai forced himself to meet with his old friends, bringing his new girlfriend up with him. "Hey, what are you guys doing here?" he asked, looking over all of them, a very puzzled look crossing his normally cool and confident face.

"We came here looking for the Rag of Resurrection…" Omi began, staring up at him, suspiciously. "…but we didn't know _you _had it!"

"Oh…" the bird handler girl asked, nervously. "Are these your friends, Rai? I didn't know they were coming today…"

"Neither did I," Rai replied under gritted teeth. "But…um, everyone, this is my new girlfriend, Leandra. Leandra, these are Kimiko, Omi, and Clay." They nervously waved to each other.

"I didn't know you got a girlfriend," was the first statement Kimiko made to him.

"Ah…well, I didn't figure you needed to know," Rai tried to explain. "Besides, you never told me about your new friend, either."

"New friend?" Kimiko asked, and her eyes settled on Jack. "Oh…you mean _Jack?_"

"Huh?" Rai asked again, still not recognizing his former nemesis. "Who are you?"

Jack snapped into reality and jumped in front of the others, striking a ridiculous pose. "Who am I?" he announced, in a pseudo super hero voice. "Why, I'm Jack Spicer- non-evil boy genius and legendary Dragon of Metal!"

Leandra began giggling at his side, but Rai looked like he was about to faint. "_What?_ Alright, that's it. I'm having a nightmare. You guys just suddenly show up, and you're looking for the Rag of Resurrection, and _Jack Spicer _is a _good guy?_ Someone has to wake me up right now."

Kimiko crossed her arms and pushed Jack out of the way. "We're _not_ an illusion, Rai. Even though you wish we were. Just like I wish _you_ were, but you're not."

"Look, Kim, I'm sorry," the nervous Brazilian boy tried to continue. "I didn't know how you'd react to hearing the news. I wasn't even planning on letting you know at all. We might have been close before, but… I can't go back to the way things were before. My place is here now." He paused when he saw the confused, upset looks on Kimiko, Omi, and Clay's faces. "I'm sorry," he added, turning to walk away with Leandra.

The circus girl looked like she wanted to object, but followed her boyfriend into the whirling dust.

Kimiko hung her head. "I can't believe that guy! Rai!" she yelled after him, although she knew he couldn't hear. "You can't just walk away! You're the Dragon of Wind! It's your _destiny_ to come with us!" She only sighed in defeat when there came no response.

Rai and Leandra were headed for one of the trailers in the distance. It was almost too late…

"What are we going to do?" Omi wondered aloud. "We need to get the Rag of Resurrection from him…" Clay glanced solemnly at the ground.

Jack, who had been unnaturally calm ever since the clown incident, stepped back from the others and thought for a minute. As he remembered those influential images from the future world, he thought he might be able to do something similar with his Shen-Gong-Wu…but why? The other Xiaolin Warriors had never really done anything for him…and he didn't even know this Rai guy.

Still…the Xiaolin Warriors _had_ helped him to find the right path, and protect the world from himself. Maybe this Rai guy just needed something to help him, too… "…Hey…" he awkwardly began to say.

The others turned around to look at him, half expecting some complaint or unimportant statement.

Jack lifted the Vase of Viscous Visions to his shoulder. "Maybe…well, I'm not sure, but maybe I could use this to make him see his memories of the time he spent with you and want to come back again."

The other Xiaolin Warriors just blinked for a moment in surprise. "…Really? …_Jack_? …You'd _do _that?" Kimiko finally managed to say. It was almost unthinkable that he would just step up to help someone he'd never even known before and especially on only his second day of being a good guy, but the other three Warriors stared, surprisingly as Jack ran out after Rai and Leandra.

"Wait up!" he yelled, and the two circus performers at last turned around. Rai only looked more confused and disgusted, as Kimiko, Clay, and Omi came running up behind Jack.

(REFERENCE)

"See," he said. "Just as I always thought. You guys even trust Jack Spicer more than you trust me. You don't need someone around who'll only worry you."

"That's not true," Kimiko tried to persuade him. "Well, yeah, we trust Jack, but only after he became the Dragon of Metal and decided to stop being evil. You might worry us sometimes, but he worries us too, and…"

(REFERENCE)

Jack held up the blue vase, gripping it by its two handles, and then Kimiko knew to be quiet and let the Shen-Gong-Wu do its thing. "Vase of Viscous Visions," he commanded, and instantly the swirling, bubble colors swelled up and over the edges of the item.

Kimiko, Omi, Clay, and Leahandra all gasped as the liquid flew forward and coated Rai's body. They couldn't see what was going on within the psychedelic bubble, but they could tell that he was seeing something.

At first, Rai only stared in shock at the images before him, but before long, they could see him laughing, and once, he even looked sad and longing. He _had_ been together with Omi, Clay, and Kimiko quite a while, and despite their differences, they'd had a wonderful time together. (SPOILER) _Of course, _he finally decided, when a vision of the day he'd captured Wuya and saved the world flickered past in the Vase's liquid coating. (SPOILER) _They needed me then. And that other time…and that other time… Perhaps the place where I _really _belong is…_

Finally, the wave of watery memories receded back into the pot from whence it came, and Raimundo stepped out of his trance, smiling mysteriously. "Well…" he admitted. "Now that I think about it…"

"You're going to come back to the temple with us!" Omi blurted out in hopeful anticipation.

Suddenly, before he could reply, a strange golden object came hurtling through the air straight for him. Leandra screamed, but before anyone else could do something to stop the falling meteorite, a large gray-colored sphere popped up around them. The object crashed into the shield and went flying far off into the distance.

"What was _that?_" Rai cried, questioning both the object that had fallen from the sky and the shield that had protected everyone from it.

"Gee…that just came out of nowhere!" Kimiko stated as she finally began to calm down.

"I did it!" Jack exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips and trying to look important. "I did the Silver Shield!"

While Clay, Omi, and Kimiko nodded and uttered words of gratefulness, Rai cocked his head, not knowing what he was talking about.

"So, everyone," Dojo spoke up, enlarging himself and nearly crushing Clay. "Are we ready to head back?"

"Just a second," Rai told him. "I need to okay it by my parents. We were supposed to leave here and do another show tomorrow…and Leandra…" He looked back, worriedly at the sequined girl standing just behind him.

"Oh, don't worry," she urged him. "We can still talk to each other on the internet. And maybe sometime you could call me… Go ahead with your friends. I know how much you missed them, since you were always talking about them…"

Rai blushed a little and fiddled with his Pedrosa family uniform. "Well…I just thought you'd be angry with me for choosing them over you…"

"Don't be silly," Leandra replied, with a giggle. "If _I _had special powers and got to ride around on a giant Chinese dragon, I sure wouldn't want to leave that."

"Well, we'll come back and visit!" Dojo decided, raising his neck, proudly. "And I'll give you a ride, since someone actually _wants _me to give them a ride…"

A few minutes later, after Rai had talked to his parents, the Xiaolin Dragons once again boarded their temple guardian and waved to Leandra and the Pedrosa family below.

"I can't believe I did the Silver Shield," Jack spontaneously commented, when they were too far up in the sky to see them anymore.

"Yeah…" Kimiko slowly responded. "We have a lot to tell Master Fung once we get back to the temple."

"Yeah, I did the Silver Shield!" Jack repeated, sitting up straight and proud. That seemed to be the only thing he could say.

A few uncomfortable hours later, Dojo touched down again just outside the Xiaolin temple's blue-and-yellow trimmed buildings. "Well…welcome home," he said, twisting his long scaly head around to look at Raimundo.

"Yeah…" he replied, a small smile appearing on his tanned face. "It feels good to be back here."

The new group of five Xiaolin Warriors hopped from the dragon's back and ran excitedly back into the main temple together. For the first time, they were all together…at least, the first time they were all together as Xiaolin Dragons. "We're ba-ack!" Omi announced as they hurried through the doors and into the long central chamber.

"Hey, old man!" Jack cried, running ahead of the others and up to the base of where Master Fung stood.

"That's Master Fung to you," he corrected, scowling down at his newest pupil.

"Of course, oh great master…" Jack said, bowing in false reverence. "But, I just had to tell you…I finally did the Silver Shield!"

"Oh, really," Master Fung acknowledged, though his facial expression read "took ya long enough."

"And more importantly…" Kimiko announced from behind. She stepped up in front of Jack, much to his frustration, and pulled Raimundo up beside her. "Rai's back!"

"Well…welcome back, Raimundo," Master Fung said to him. "I trust you've made a firm decision this time…"

"Yes," Rai answered, clenching a fist. "This is where I am really needed. And it's not like I can't still see my family and friends across the ocean… I'm the Dragon of Wind, and I need to perform my duties, no matter what!"

"Yeah, that's the spirit, kid!" Dojo said, scuttling onto Rai's shoulder, protectively.

"Get off," he only responded, flinging the gecko-sized dragon off.

"Hmm…" Master Fung thought aloud to himself. "This is the first time in quite awhile that all five Elemental Dragons are together… It'll be interesting to see just how far your powers will go…"

"What do you mean by that?" Omi asked, hurrying up to the front in fascination.

"Never mind," the temple master disappointed him. "You don't need to know any more right now. Besides, there might not even be a need for…" He cut himself off and waved a hand at them, lost in thought. "You may go now. I believe you still have a few tasks that need to be done…"

The group glanced at each other, but trooped out into the hallways of the Xiaolin Temple together.

(-)

"You ought to go place that Rag of Resurrection in the Vault," Clay told Rai as they walked along.

"Yeah, I'll do it later," he casually replied. "Besides, you guys haven't returned _your_ Shen-Gong-Wu either."

"We could have never guessed that _you_ were holding that Shen-Gong-Wu," Omi spoke up, looking up at Rai. "It's funny how that worked out."

"…And after all that, we still have chores to do!" Kimiko complained, checking her schedule. "Don't worry, Rai, you just came back and you're not on the list, so he won't make you do any."

"I wouldn't have minded," Rai replied to everyone's surprise. "I do have to get back into the routine around here."

"Well…" Kimiko continued, looking back down at the schedule. "Today, I'm taking out the garbage…yay… Omi's doing the gardening, Jack has to wash dishes, and Clay is doing the laundry. Hmm, there's no one making dinner today…"

"Isn't it a little late to be doing gardening?" Omi asked, looking outside at the dark, moonlit sky above the flower patch.

"Well, we were supposed to have started at 3:00," Kimiko explained, "But we were out getting Rai at that time… Shen-Gong-Wu recovering is more important than daily chores."

Omi was about to point out that they had actually been watching the circus at 3:00, but didn't want to stir up trouble.

Clay hurried to the laundry room, while Kimiko began to unload the first trash barrel in sight. As she pulled the trash bag from its plastic container, she happened to look back up at Jack, who hadn't moved an inch yet.

"Hey!" she called over to him. "What are you waiting for? You have to do the dishes, you know." She'd been slightly surprised when she hadn't heard his voice earlier, complaining about actually having to do manual labor and wondering why they didn't have a dishwasher.

Jack was simply standing in the corner, smiling secretively to himself. He was definitely up to something.

"Hey…" Rai spoke up, crossing his arms and raising a thick eyebrow. "Now what's that smile for, Jack? I got a funny feeling you're hiding something from us…"

"Mmm…" Jack tried to answer, his smile widening as he fought against the urge to break out in an evil grin. "…It's time I introduced you to my newest inventions…" he at last managed to say, the grin finally winning over.

Kimiko jumped up, on alert. This whole thing really _was_ a cover-up after all!

Jack thrust his arm out, pointing towards the kitchen, dramatically. "Washerbots, go!" he commanded.

Instantly, an army of robots with sinks in the tops of their square bodies and washing machine door paraded into the kitchen. Robotic arms popped up from their sides, and they grabbed the dishes, squirting soap on them, dunking them in their sinks, and placing them back in the strainer, sparkling clean. Jack smiled and crossed his arms proudly as the Washerbots finished their work.

Kimiko and Rai stared, both in anger, fascination, and relief. "Jack!" Kimiko cried. "That's cheating!"

"Nuh-uh," the "non-evil boy genius" replied. "I'm just doing my chores."

"No, you're not!" Kimiko insisted. "Those _robots_ are doing your chores!"

"Well, I _made _those robots that are doing my chores, so I am, in fact, indirectly doing my chores," Jack argued, nonchalantly.

Rai watched the robot brigade with surprising astonishment and admiration. "Hey…" he asked, looking back at Jack. "Can I borrow those Washerbots next time _I_ have to do the dishes?"

"Rai!" Kimiko complained. "Not you too!"

"Sure thing," Jack replied, throwing a smile over at the Brazilian. "I need to test out my new Sweeperbots too, so let me know when you have to do the sweeping."

"What about tomorrow?" Kimiko asked, trying to catch Jack with something. "You have to cook dinner."

"No problem," he answered, calmly. "I'll get to try out the new Chefbots!"

Kimiko hit the floor in exasperation. _No wonder he was so tired today, _she realized, _he was up all night making these chore-alleviating robots! _Naturally, it took Kimiko, Omi, and Clay a lot longer to finish their chores, and at one time, Kimiko even considered asking Jack if he had any trash-collecting robots.

Finally, when the five met up again, it was around 6:30. "Well, let's decide what we're having for dinner," Clay suggested. The three of them were staved after their work.

"We should have something to celebrate Raimundo's return to us!" Omi exclaimed.

"Can we at least have something I like for once?" Jack complained.

"I have no idea," Kimiko commented. "You don't seem to like anything we have. What do you like, anyway?"

"Oh, just normal stuff," he answered, coolly. "Like pizza, hamburgers, potato chips…"

"Junk food," Omi corrected him.

"It's _not_ junk food!" Jack argued back. "I've been eating that stuff all my life, and I'm perfectly healthy."

"…Well, pizza doesn't sound so bad," Kimiko consented. "We could order a few pizzas and have a pizza party." Of course, this turned into a struggle when everyone wanted different toppings, and Omi wanted to try each one, since he'd never had pizza before. Kimiko eventually had to order four pizzas, all with different toppings.

About thirty minutes later, when the delivery man arrived, they begged Master Fung to let them have a pizza party, and he grudgingly agreed, since it was a special occasion. Of course, Dojo wanted to join them, since there was food involved, and they decorated the kitchen with streamers for the event.

For the rest of the night, the five Dragons and the dragon ate and talked together. Clay even tried to get the others involved in a hoedown, although he only got Omi and Kimiko to join him on the dance floor. Dojo ended up eating a whole pizza and had a stomachache for the remainder of the party.

Since the others pointed out that it was her day to take out the trash, Kimiko unwillingly tore down the streamers and carried out the empty pizza boxes at the end of it. She hoped Master Fung wouldn't mind that it was actually 9:30 that they were going to bed instead of 8:30.

Jack was the first one to reach the dormitory hallway, since he was actually tired tonight, from his lack of sleep last night. As he looked around, he decided to try to sleep in his assigned cubicle tonight, since he didn't feel like going back down to his lab. He lied down on the mat in the center of the "room" and pulled a dark sheet over himself, too tired to worry about changing into pajamas.

Omi reached his cubicle next, since he wasn't used to being up at 9:30, and fell asleep as soon as he got there.

Kimiko and Clay came next, chatting with each other as they entered the hallway. Then, they separated to go to their separate cubicles. None of them even thought about their new problem…

Rai entered the hallway, stretching and looking around. He was carrying his things in a suitcase, and set it down inside what he remembered as his old "room". Yup, he affirmed. It was definitely his; some of his posters were even still tacked to the wall. He clicked the suitcase open, and shuffled through his belongings. It was too late to worry about changing into pajamas, he decided, and just placed his pillow on the mat at the center of the room, and pulled out a blanket to cover himself with. Strange…the mat seemed a bit darker and lumpier than he remembered, but then again, he hadn't been here in a while.

Rai finally took a deep breath and lied down, flipping the blanket over him, contentedly. Something didn't feel right… Rai shifted his body to the right and tried to figure out what that warm, bumpy feeling was, and then he realized that, to his horror, there was another person lying beside him!

Jack's eyes popped open again when he felt another body bumping against his back. Sure, he'd been hearing rustling around him, but he figured that had only been Omi or Clay in the next door cubicles. But there was someone sleeping on the same mat with him! He slowly sat up and turned around to see who it was.

Rai slowly sat up to see who it was.

When the two saw each other, they simultaneously screamed, and jumped up out of their blankets. Jack shot off down the hall, while Rai figured it was safe to run around the corner and into Kimiko's cubicle.

"_Rai_!" Kimiko exclaimed, since the screaming had instantly woken her up. "Geez, Rai, what's the matter?"

"What's the matter?" he cried, running over to her in a frantic gesture. "What's the _matter?_ _Jack Spicer _was in my _bed_!"

"_What?_" Kimiko cried, imagining all kind of terrible things, but then she calmed down and realized what must have happened. "Oh no. I forgot about that. See, we told him he could stay in your old room, and…"

By this time, Omi and Clay had also ventured out to see what all that screaming had been about, and found Rai and Kimiko in her cubicle. They had to explain once again what had happened to them.

"What's the big deal?" said the always clueless Omi. "They could just share the room." Rai shot a death glare at him.

"Where'd Jack go?" Kimiko asked. "We could probably just get him to sleep in his laboratory instead."

"I don't know," Rai testily replied. "I was too busy running for my life!"

"I'll go look," Clay volunteered, and soon found him, locked up in the bathroom. When they both returned, the others all noticed that Jack looked just as shaken and flustered as Rai.

"I forgot!" he called to them. "I'm sorry. I shall go get my blanket and never return to this hallway again!" They watched as he stomped off to his lab, dragging the black sheet along behind him.

"Well…that settles that," Kimiko summed up. "You can go back to your room now, Rai."

"…I don't think I _want_ to," he replied, trying to shake off the shock. "I think I've been scarred for life!"

"Oh, come on, it was just a misunderstanding," Kimiko told him. "No go back to bed."

Finally, Rai, Clay, and Omi trudged off back to their rooms, and Kimiko laid her head back down on her pillow. _This place is too full of guys…_ she thought. _Well, at least we have all of the Xiaolin Dragons together now… Boy, is this going to be interesting… _And at last, a soothing tranquility settled over the Xiaolin Temple, for the first time in what seemed like ages.


	11. Fitting In

WARNING: World's Longest Chapter Alert. EternalFluffy is not responsible for your lost hour's time, or your bleary eyes from staring at the screen too long. Start reading at your own risk. (lol)

Yes…this _is_ the last chapter. (sniffle). But it's certainly the longest! It's practically a fic in itself. There are still some issues Jack needs to deal with, along with Rai in the mix now, and some sweet Jack/Kim fluff near the end. I don't know if Jack can swim or not. I never saw him swimming in any of the episodes I've seen…Well, I'll just pretend. He's _very _OOC when he goes to extremes trying to impress Kimiko…but it's all for the sake of the Jack/Kim. And sorry for the sappy, disappointing ending. Wow, I'm bad with endings. The spoiler sign system is still in place, but I'll stop marking off all the references to things that happen in S2, because it is getting nitpicky. And sorry this chapter took so long. It _is_ long.

(-)

Chapter 11: Fitting In

Days passed slowly and painfully at first, but once everyone had settled into the temple routine again, two weeks easily flew by. Over the course of these weeks, Rai and Jack eventually were able to look at each other again, and they had even started becoming friends. They shared the "chore-bots", as Kimiko had named them, until Master Fung found out and forbid them to use them anymore.

Often times, you could also see Jack and Rai playing video games together, zapping each other, getting angry at each other, and breaking into a wrestling match in front of the television (which Rai always won). In fact, on this very day, they were at it again, and Kimiko could hear them arguing amidst the video game sound affects and background music as she was cleaning up in the adjacent room.

"I was almost there, and then you shot me!" Rai cried. "_Will you stop shooting me like that_?"

"I can't help it…" Jack replied. "It's just so fun…and you leave yourself _wide open_!"

"I leave myself wide open because you're supposed to be able to trust your mission partner not to blast you when you turn your back!"

"Hey, don't talk to me about trust, chronic turncoat boy."

"The same goes for you, you…evil Dragon imposter!"

A dull, continuous thumping came from the room, and Kimiko smiled down at Omi, who was helping her today. "They're such good friends, aren't they?" she sarcastically commented.

"Oh, yes," Omi agreed. "At first I was worried about how they would react to one another, but it looks like they're getting along fine."

One final thump crashed from the room, and then they knew that Rai had pinned Jack again, and soon they'd get back to playing as if nothing had happened.

(-)

Later that day, it was once again time for training in the meeting room with Master Fung. Rai had easily slipped back into the martial arts training routine, basically because he was so strong and acrobatic already. He loved to show off his circus talents, much to the other's annoyance.

Jack was improving, though very slowly, and he was still performing basic attack and defense techniques. Several times he tripped on the chains dangling from the ends of his pants, which launched Master Fung into a "why Xiaolin Dragons need to wear uniforms" speech. Still, the elemental attacks all seemed to be on par, and now Jack could even perform the Silver Shield at his will.

(SPOILER)

"Tornado Strike, Water!" Omi called, jumping into place. "Judallet Flip, Fire!" Kimiko yelled, gracefully jumping into a handstand on top of his head. "Seismic Kick, Earth!" Clay added, posing on the right side. "Typhoon Boom, Wind!" Rai finished, posing on the opposite side. "Dragon X Cume Formation!" they all cried in unison.

(SPOILER)

"Metal!" Jack summoned, and jumped around, trying to find a place where he would fit in the X Cume formation. He was jumping up and down behind Omi and Kimiko, until Kimiko turned around to glare at him.

"Don't even think about it," she warned.

Jack trudged away, looking slightly confused and disappointed, (SPOILER) as Clay and Rai began to spin Omi and Kimiko around like a chopping blade.(SPOLIER) "But…where…?" he questioned, watching them with strange longing.

"You can't join the X Cume formation just yet," Master Fung told him. "You see, the others are all Xiaolin Apprentices, but your powers have only just awakened. It will take a while before you reach that level."

"Yeah," Omi agreed as the four original Dragons came back out of their attack positions. "You can't expect a novice like Jack to join us in such an advanced move!"

Jack was just about to give the little loudmouth a whack on the head, but suddenly, he didn't even feel like it. The cold fact was everything that they were telling him was entirely true. He was so far behind…

Then, it was time for the physical training. Omi, Kimiko, and Clay were engaging in a three-way practice battle, while Rai brushed up on his moves at the punching bag nearby. In a different section, Jack was practicing on stringing together some of the basic moves he'd learned, so he might actually use them in a fight. Of course, Master Fung was supervising, telling what he was dong wrong, and how to fix it.

"You're too tense, Jack," he called as the boy was trying out different combos, jumping back and forth to keep the beat. "Just relax; let your spirit guide your movements."

And at that precise moment, Jack tripped over his chains again and went flying, face first into the red carpet. After hearing the muffled crash of someone falling, the other Xiaolin Dragons all paused for a moment to look at him.

"_Jack_…" Master Fung spoke up, putting his hands on his hips. "What have I told you about those chain pants?"

"It wasn't the chains' fault!" Omi spoke up from behind him, grinning in a smart-aleck way. "He was only following your orders. He let his spirit guide his movements!"

Jack's face turned red, half from anger and half from embarrassment. While Kimiko looked a little worried, Clay looked indifferent as always, and Rai tried to stifle his laughter.

Jack sat up and glanced over at them. _Why did that stupid cue ball have to say that?_ he thought. _He made me look like such an idiot…in front of her. Not that I haven't looked like an idiot in front of her before, but… I thought maybe I could get her to like me now that I'm on her side…_

Now, even Clay began to frown in the uncomfortable silence. Jack appeared to be angry…but, he wasn't yelling back at them or abusing Omi in any way.

"Aw, screw this," he finally spoke up as he forcefully got to his feet again and brushed himself off. "I'm going back to my lab."

The other Xiaolin Warriors watched, worriedly as he stormed out of the room and down the hall that lead to the basement chamber. Another uncomfortable silence swept over them. "Omi!" Kimiko finally cried, whapping him over the head in place of Jack. "You shouldn't make fun of him like that. He _is _just a beginner."

"Yes, but he makes fun of _me_ all the time!" Omi replied, and no one could argue with that.

"Someone needs to go talk to him," Kimiko said, looking to the others for help, since she didn't want to have to do it herself.

"I'll go," Rai finally decided. "I think I know what's eating him."

(-)

Five hours later, however, the young circus star was regretting that decision. He stood just in front of the downstairs wooden door which now read "Jack Spicer's Non Evil Laboratory" on the outside and waited for an answer from its occupant. "Yo…Spicer dude!" he called, leaning against the door with one arm. "I need to have a talk with ya."

A distant scraping could be heard in the distance, and Rai stood up straight again just before Jack cracked the door open. He looked particularly annoyed and frustrated, with a scowl crossing his face, and tension nipping at his features. "What do _you_ want?"

"Just what I said," Rai defiantly replied. "I need to have a talk with you."

"About _what_?" Jack continued, as if Rai could never really need to talk to him about anything. "You wanted to try to sneak by Master Fung with some chore-bots?"

"No, no," Rai insisted. "It's more important than that. I think I might be able to help you."

Now, a wry smile was creeping onto Jack's face, slightly amused with this whole situation. "So suddenly you want to become my assistant and put together some new chore-evasive tactics?"

"No!" Rai cried, fed up with his attitude. "Will you just _listen_ to me already?"

"Okay, okay," Jack finally consented. "Come in and sit down. If you explode out there, you'll ruin my brand new sign."

He held the door open and Rai marched into the room, plopping down into an old black leather couch near the computer, huffily. Why was he always the one that had to come and perform difficult tasks like this?

"So what was the big, desperate emergency that you had to talk to _me _about it?" Jack said, sitting on a swiveling stool in front of his computer, and tapping out a short command on its pop-up screen. "…This wouldn't happen to be Wuya-related, would it?" he asked, swiveling around to glance over at his new visitor.

Rai took a deep breath to calm himself down and sighed. "No… Everyone was just concerned about the way you were acting this morning. I was watching, and it was similar to the time when I was angry and frustrated at the temple…and the whole world. I know what you're feeling, Jack…"

"How would you know?" Jack interrupted, cockily. "Are you hiding a Shen-Gong-Wu under that sweatshirt?"

"No," Rai said, for the fourth time since this conversation had started. "And I'm _not_ exactly sure how you're feeling, but it looked to me like we had the same thoughts. I know what it's like to be behind everyone else, and feel like you're worthless just because you're not on the same skill level as the rest. Believe me, Omi teased me just as much when I hadn't become a Xiaolin Apprentice yet… That's part of the reason I ended up with Wuya for that time…"

"Well…that's part of the problem…" Jack admitted, shifting his gaze from Rai to the floor. "It's just that being behind everyone else makes me look like such a loser…and…and…"

Rai sat up straight and stared interestingly at Jack. This was the most emotional he'd ever seen the formerly evil inventor, and it made him fairly uncomfortable. "…And what?" he gently insisted. "Don't worry, I won't tell the others."

Jack gathered his courage and then looked up at him again. "…And I don't want to look like a loser…in front of Kimiko. …She'll never like me that way."

Rai blinked and let the information sink in. That was right…he began to remember, Jack liked Kimiko…and Kimiko didn't like Jack; she liked him…and he liked Leandra. It was a vicious triangle. "Well…" Rai finally spoke up, trying to give him some reassurance. "For your information, Kim was actually the one standing up for you after you left the training session."

"…_Really_?" Jack said, his red eyes lighting up again in hopefulness. It looked like Rai's strategy was working.

"Yeah," he continued. "So maybe you've got a chance after all. Besides, she knows I've got Leandra now and she can't have me." He had Jack's complete attention now, as he lifted from the broken-down old couch and stepped towards him. Rai gestured with what he hoped was a friendly smile. "And since she'd had a crush on _me_ for the longest time, I know exactly what she goes for."

"_Really_?" Jack cried again, a big smile breaking out on his face. He was so excited, his voice squeaked a little, and he instantly forced himself into a serious, moody scowl again.

This time Rai was truly smiling, since he had to hold back laughter. "Well, first thing…you've really got to concentrate on your training, not only so you can get closer to the Xiaolin Apprentice rank, but because Kimiko only likes guys with tight bodies."

Jack stared down at the ground again, placing his chin in his hand, obviously deep in thought. "Really…" he said for the third time.

"Yup," Rai affirmed in satisfaction. And ditch the goggles; she can't stand those swirling, hypnotizing things… You might want to pick up a cool tan like mine, too. It sure helps."

"Thanks; you can go now," Jack quickly dismissed him, sensing a bragging speech coming on. "I've got work to do." He swiveled back around to face his computer, and began searching for information on the internet.

Rai happily rushed to the door, slipping back out into the normal world. Not only had he completed his task, but maybe he just might've talked Spicer into acting a bit more like a normal guy. He skipped, contentedly back off to his- mark that, _his_ cubicle. But, as he suddenly realized on his trip back, he couldn't tell Kimiko about his success. Maybe after Jack did something about his appearance, he could brag and tell her it was his idea. That decided, he continued his grateful return to the dormitory hallway. Yes, things were looking up in Pedrosa World.

(-)

It had taken a while to sort things out, but now it was all in place, and Jack had begun his new strategy. It seemed like a complicated, technical process, but it was really quite simple. In fact, he was almost enjoying following this plan…Well, this part of it, anyway.

It was lunchtime. Yes, boring old, disgusting lunch…but today, it was more than just lunch- it was Operation: Nutrition!

Kimiko, Omi, and Clay had already finished their lunch, and were throwing shifty glanced over the low tabletop. Rai had just about finished too, but unlike his three teammates, he knew exactly what was up. Jack was still sitting on the opposite side, scarfing up his second plate.

"I thought you hated our "weird" food," Kimiko commented, laying her chin in her hands as she continued to glare at him.

"Oh…no," Jack replied between mouthfuls. "I decided to give up junk food! Yeah, Omi's right, that stuff's bad for me; I need this "normal" food to be strong!"

Kimiko and Clay stared at each other, not believing their eyes or their ears. Omi rubbed his yellow chin, thoughtfully. "This reminds me of a time long, long ago, when I too desperately wanted to grow big and strong through food…"

"Yeah," Rai said, smirking over at him. "If three months qualifies as long, long ago."

At last, Jack finished, and pulled a tall, aluminum can out of thin air. "Protein shake!" he cried, and then guzzled the whole thing.

Kimiko and Clay continued to stare, not sure whether to be amused, weirded out, or worried. The strange expressions on their faces seemed to be a mixture of all three.

Jack tossed the empty can onto his plate with the rest of the trash, and looked sick for a moment. "Ugh, that thing was disgusting… I-I mean that thing was delicious!"

"Uh…are you feelin' okay there, partner?" Clay spoke up.

"Of course!" Jack purposely lied, throwing a wink over at them. "Never felt better!"

"That's always a bad sign," Omi muttered.

"And why are you being so darn cheerful?" Kimiko added, suspiciously. "Aren't you going to complain? Sulk? Make faces? Something?"

"Nope!" Jack immediately cried, in a fake chirpy voice. "Along with junk food, I decided to give up complaining too! Yup, you won't hear another whine outta me about having to do chores, or anything else!"

Kimiko forcefully stood up on the other side of the table, slamming her palms down on it and staring Jack straight in the face. "Okay, that's it!" she cried. "Just who are you, and what have you done with Jack Spicer?"

"Kimiko, it's me!" he objected. "Come on, I'm not lying to you; don't you believe me?" Just from the face the frustrated Japanese girl made next, he knew the answer to that question. "No one ever believes me…" he said, lowering his head and staring at the floor. Then, an instant later, it popped up again, a big false grin plastered over it. "…but I'm not sulking about it!"

Kimiko at last relaxed and turned to walk away from the dining room. "Well, if you're really Jack Spicer, then I think you need medication."

_Well, _this _doesn't seem to be working…_ Jack realized. _That's good. Being so cheerful was beginning to hurt…Well, I have to check up on the other part of this experiment…_ "Man, I need a soda," he grumbled as he lifted himself from the low table and tried to bend his knees again.

"What was that?" Omi, who was sitting just within earshot asked.

"Uh…" Jack quickly looked at his skin, pretending to be disgusted with it. "…I said, man I need a suntan! I'm going outside for a little while; catch you guys later." Then, he quickly dashed off before they could ask any more questions.

Instead of taking a right towards the outside balcony, he veered to the left, and trampled down the wooden stairs into his "non-evil laboratory." "Phew," Jack panted to himself. "I guess this is worse than I thought…"

He began searching through a giant pile of scrap metal on the side of his workbench, the different pieces clanging against each other as he flung them aside. He'd only just made this thing yesterday night; why was it so buried in this other junk? Then, he remembered pulling out different parts he could use if worse came to worse… These heavy iron tubes might actually have a purpose. At last, he spied the device he'd been searching for and yanked it from the grip of the other junk. It was a simple, flat, rectangular thing, but the digital displays on the top revealed that it was really a scale of some sort.

Jack set it down just in front of the computer, removed his boots, and stepped onto it. The digital numbers flickered past, and at last came to a stop. This particular scale was advanced enough to have three readouts- weight, muscle, and body fat. Jack stared down at his numbers, disappointed and aggravated. "I don't believe this!" he cried to himself. "I didn't gain a single ounce! Not even body fat!"

He rolled his eyes, stepped off again, and put his boots back on. "Well, that one's out…at least I don't have to eat any more disgusting health food…"

His computer desk was swamped with all kinds of charts, graphs, manuals, advertisements, and doodles, so it took a while to find the operation list, which was actually scrawled on a piece of toilet paper. It took even longer to find a pen. Jack muttered to himself as he searched. "…I finally sorted out all this junk, and now I have to sort out all this _junk_…oh, there it is!"

At last, he spied his black, shiny pen, with "JHS" inscribed on the cap. He'd actually stolen this pen from Jones High School, but those were his initials, so he'd claimed it as his.

He tacked the toilet paper up on the wall, and crossed "Operation: Nutrition" off the top. Next up was "Operation: Education". _Oh, boy…_ Jack though, staring apprehensively at the words, and the task before him. _This is going to be…_fun.

(-)

At last, the three shaken Xiaolin Warriors figured that everything had settled down again. They were practicing with Master Fung once again the next day. So far it had been a productive session. Rai sporadically fumbled during a few positions, but the others made up for his minor mistakes. A few times, it looked like he had been distracted, craning to look over the others, into the distance. It wasn't until the rundown of positions was finished that Kimiko, Omi, and Clay realized what he had been looking at.

In his little separate corner, Jack was furiously throwing different types of punches and kicks at the hard sandbag in front of him. His face was scrunched into a determined, angry look, drops of sweat running down his cheeks, and he'd actually taken Master Fung's advice for once, and not worn the cumbersome chain pants.

"Wow…" Omi said, staring in awe. "Jack Spicer is really focusing on his martial arts training! We should get a picture graph of this rare occurrence!"

"You mean a photograph?" Kimiko corrected him. "Well, my PDA takes pictures…" she pulled the miniature computer device out of her sash.

"Hey…" Rai commented, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't know you had that stashed in there!"

"Shh," she warned him. She began to fiddle with its functions, and all of a sudden, everything just shut down, and the miniature screen went black again. "Oh, no. No, not this again!" Kimiko yelled at the gadget. "It's been acting up on me lately. The stupid thing's probably broken again…this is the third time this has happened!" She placed the PDA on a shelf to the side of the training area and returned to the crowd, since Master Fung, Dojo, and Jack were now headed in their direction.

"…It's surprising how much you've improved in the last…day," Master Fung was telling Jack as they neared the other Xiaolin Warriors.

Jack wiped his face, and panted into his sweatshirt, but smiled at the temple master. "Thank you, master. I'm going to try a little harder from now on." He laid eyes on the Xiaolin Warriors, and gratefully noted their shocked, delighted expressions, except of course, for Raimundo, who knew something was up.

"Thank you, my Dragons, for another excellent training lesson," Master Fung addressed them. "Now, if you would prepare for your meditation session…"

The five of them sat in a line, with Omi and Rai on the ends, Kimiko on one side, Clay on the other, and Jack in the middle. They crossed their legs, mostly the normal way, although Omi was in a perfect lotus position.

While Master Fung rambled on and on about preparations they must make in case another enemy appeared, Clay was falling asleep, and Rai secretly pulled on a pair of headphones. Jack was reading out of a large, hardcover book, which was propped up against his legs, while drinking another one of those protein shakes and cringing at the horrible flavor.

Finally, Dojo noticed their distractions, and scuttled down the steps to take care of them. "Clay-wake up!" he yelled, popping up under the cowboy's head.

"…Huh?" he slowly replied, shaking his head. "What happened?"

"Rai- take those headphones off!" Dojo yelled, popping up in front of the Brazilian next.

"What?" Rai yelled, even though the dragon was right in front of him. "I can't hear ya, Dojo!"

"I said take those off!" the pint-sized dragon yelled, yanking the headphones off of his head. Rai gave him death glares, but Dojo had already moved on to bother someone else.

He slithered up in front of Jack, just about to grab his book, but stopped for a moment to read the title. "Uh…what language is that?" he asked, pointing to the unrecognizable words on the cover.

Jack looked down at the title, shaking nervously. "Er…to tell you the truth, I'm not sure, but it's a great book!"

Dojo crossed his scaly claws. Even he couldn't be fooled by this pathetic cover-up. He clamped down against the hard brown cover of the giant book and yanked it out of his lap.

Caught off guard, Jack struggled for a way to defend himself. "Ah! Oh! Hey! What'd you do that for?"

Everyone glanced over, and saw it glaring out at them what he had _really_ been reading. They blinked, incredulously at the black, bold title splayed across the front. Kimiko, of course, was the first one to notice, and read it out loud to everyone else. "…Kung-Fu For Dummies?" she said, choking back laughter.

"H-Hey, it's been really helpful," Jack tried to save himself. But, soon, the rest of the crew had noticed, and even Dojo and Rai were chuckling under their breath.

"Now, everyone," Master Fung announced, demanding their attention once again. "Could we possibly get to the _meditating session_?"

As Kimiko, Rai, Omi, and Clay all closed their eyes to concentrate on their internal feelings, Jack stowed "Kung-Fu For Dummies" in a pocket on his shirt and glared, angrily over at them. _Great.__ This isn't working either. I still ended up looking like an idiot in front of Kimiko… If only that stupid dragon hadn't uncovered the book! _He growled to himself, but closed his eyes when he noticed Master Fung giving him the evil temple master's eye. It looked like Operation: Education was yet another failure.

Late that night, Jack returned to his lab to cross out his second idea. Things were getting down to the wire now. There was only one resort left before…more drastic measures. "Okay!" Jack exclaimed, making a fist and trying to get motivated for the next step of his grand plan. "Now it's time for…Operation: Imitation!"

(-)

It was dark and silent in this section of the Xiaolin Temple. Rai, Clay, Omi, and Kimiko were gathering in the dining room for supper. In this abandoned stillness, no one would notice…

A dark shadow slinked its way down the dormitory hallway, and when it came to the middle section, shot into the second cubicle from the wall. At last, Jack uncovered his head, and pulled his long, black coat down over his shoulders. _This is kind of fun, _he thought, _I haven't slunk anywhere in a long time… Slinking used to be one of my favorite activities…_

At last, he snapped back into what he was trying to do, and searched through the shirts and pants in the nearest suitcase. _Now, I've just got to find an outfit…Well, at least a shirt. I think I've got an old pair of pants I could wear. I don't really want to wear someone else's pants…_ He pulled out a few shirts, and shuddered at the thought of wearing such bright colors.

_I guess this one will do…_ he decided, grabbing a green, long-sleeved, jersey type shirt. _It's not _as _ugly as the rest…that guy sure does have some ugly clothes. _So, with that, Jack clutched the shirt under his coat, raised the coat above his head, and happily slunk back downstairs.

(-)

Early the next morning, Kimiko, Omi, and Clay had congregated around the breakfast table, setting out the necessary materials. Today was waffle day, and everyone was eagerly anticipating the event. Clay had even fished out the syrup, butter, and strawberries, while Omi was struggling with the batter container. Kimiko was searching for the waffle iron, and the moment she found it and struggled to plop it down in the center of the table, he knew it was the perfect moment.

Jack checked himself in the small, pocket mirror he'd discovered shoved way in the back of his closet. Yes…now was the perfect time, especially since Raimundo wasn't even up yet.

He took a deep breath and strode out into the room. He quickly reached the counter, turned away from his teammates, and pretended to be pouring himself some juice. This was the strategy he'd devised last night. Since he didn't feel like dying his hair and putting on makeup and contacts, they'd have to only see him from the back for now. Hopefully, this little scheme would work out.

Kimiko was now looking around, trying to find the plug for the waffle iron. She couldn't read the buttons on the dial, and after she'd found the plug, she wasn't sure what to set the controls on. This iron was a bit more advanced, and she didn't want to screw up the waffles on waffle day. "Hey…" she finally spoke up, turning around to look at the figure at the counter behind them. "Rai, could you help us with the waffle iron?" And that was all he needed to hear.

Jack couldn't keep the grin from twitching onto his face, and he quickly swiveled around at the sweet sound. "Sure!" he cried, putting his hands on his hips, and the others looked so startled, they nearly hit the floor.

"_Jack_?" Kimiko cried, finally getting her bearings again. "Why are you wearing Rai's shirt?"

"Er…he let me borrow it!" Jack quickly thought up the lie. "We wear the same size." Actually, the shirt didn't fit perfectly, because Jack was a little bit skinnier than Rai, but it was still very close. "Ha! So it worked!" he cried in victory, and pointed at them. "You really thought I was Rai, didn't you?"

"Yeah, from the back…" Omi pointed out. "Why would you want to look like Raimundo?"

"Who _wouldn't_ want to look like me?" Rai arrogantly stated as he appeared in the doorway. All the racket of preparing for waffle day had finally woken him up. "And Jack…couldn't you have at least told me first before stealing my shirt?"

Jack shrugged. "I wanted to surprise everyone. …What are you staring at?" Kimiko, Omi, and Clay still looked stricken, staring at the transformation with wide eyes.

"You look _weird_!" Kimiko at last cried.

"Weird as in "much different and handsome", or weird as in "much different and even worse?" Jack asked, fearful, but hopeful.

"It's…just…_normal_!" Kimiko struggled to explain. "You look normal! That's weird! It's weird because you're normal, and you're not normally normal and it's weirding me out!"

"I'm confused," Jack replied, bringing his hand up to his chin. "Does it look better or not? Do you still think I'm freaky?"

"It _is _freaky!" Kimiko tried again. "Because you're so normal! It's freaking me out! Where are your goggles?"

"Oh, I left them in the lab," Jack replied, trying to sound casual. "I need them when I'm working, but there's really no reason for me to keep them on _all_ the time…" The three of them only looked even more freaked out.

"And…and…" Kimiko tried to continue. "…Where's the _black_? You're not wearing any black!"

"It's the end of the world!" Omi added. "Jack Spicer's not wearing anything black!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "It's not like I always have to wear black… I never did as a kid…"

"Are you feelin' okay, partner?" Clay asked, for the second time since the operations began.

"Yeah, you've really been acting weird lately. I mean…weirder than what is normal for you… No! Here we go again!"

"What Kimiko means," Omi summed up. "Is that you're acting weirdly normal instead of your normal weirdness…"

"That's an oxymoron!" Kimiko yelled at him, frustrated and confused.

"Oh, forget it," Jack finally decided, turning to escape from the room.

Rai smirked at him as he went past. "So, how's the improving coming along?" he asked.

"Not very well, as you can see," Jack told him. "I just keep freaking her out…no matter what I do…" He hung his head and continued on past the doorway. "I'll return your shirt in a few minutes," he called back to his model.

Jack trudged back down to his laboratory to de-Raimundo himself. Even though this operation was another failure, he couldn't help but be relieved as he slipped his skull sweatshirt back on, and fitted his goggles back around his head. The only problem with this failure was this was the last one on the list…before the "more drastic measures".

Jack faced his scrap of toilet paper and gulped at the next operation on the list…Operation: Body Transformation. As he stared at the black, pointed letters, he heard voices in his head of what they had said earlier.

Kimiko's wave of thought… "Maybe if he worked out once in a while, he wouldn't look like such a scrawny old lady."

Rai's statement earlier that week… "Kimiko only likes guys with tight bodies."

Jack looked into the full-length mirror hanging from the outside of the long closet in the corner. Slowly, he rolled his right sleeve up and flexed his arm to see his muscle. He'd never bothered with such things before, more interested in improving his mind and building machines, but now it looked like it would be necessary. He frowned at the pitiful slight bump that formed.

_She's right…_he admitted to himself. _I guess I am a "scrawny old lady" …I really have no muscles… Well, the new plan will take care of this…_

He walked over, and pulled several papers out of the messy pile covering the computer desk. These were the advertisements he'd printed out, and each one had different exercise machines from various online offers and infomercials. Jack took a few minutes to study some of them, and began to sift through his pile of scrap metal, searching for just the right pieces…

(-)

As the other Xiaolin Dragons all realized, this weird normality would continue down, even into the month of June. Rai was cleverly avoiding Omi, Clay, and Kimiko's discussion over the dinner table, and was ducking behind the corner, pretending to be scrubbing a plate.

"It's weird. First he tried to bulk up on food and shakes, acted all happy, and then tried to get ahead of training, and finally, he even tried to look like Rai…"

"Well, it's quite obvious what is going on," Omi told them. "Jack Spicer is trying to be like Raimundo!"

"But _why_?" Clay asked.

"Maybe he looks up to him," Omi suggested.

"Nah," Kimiko immediately said. "Jack doesn't look up to _anyone_…except Chase Young."

"Well, they're kinda like best friends," Clay stated. "You know how sometimes you want to look and act like your best friend." Again, Kimiko shook her head, black pigtails bouncing.

Rai, from his secret space around the corner, snickered at them. He couldn't believe how utterly clueless the three of them were. It should be obvious that Jack was trying to impress Kimiko.

The only thing he realized was that it was getting pretty late. It was almost suppertime…but Jack hadn't even shown his freckled face in the dining hall today. He had taken some food from the pantry, but…to miss entire meals with the rest of them… Slowly, Rai was beginning to worry about this plan of Jack's. What kind of crazy thing was he pulling now?

"Hey…" Rai finally, hesitantly entered into the discussion. "Where _is_ Jack anyway?"

Omi looked over at the empty seat opposite them. "He _has_ been missing for quite a while, hasn't he?" They remained in confusion and suspense for another half an hour.

Rai ducked back out of the discussion, afraid that they would ask him something, so he returned to scrubbing the pan. Even later, when Master Fung came to deliver their meals, Jack still hadn't shown up.

"He's missing supper again," Clay commented. "The meal's gonna get as cold and slippery as worms after a rainstorm."

"Ewww," Kimiko complained. "I think I lost my appetite."

"Ooo! Ooo!" Dojo cried, rushing up to the side of the table. "I'll eat it! If Spicer doesn't show up in two minutes, that plate's mine!"

Kimiko slammed her fork down in her plate. "No, you're not," she insisted. "Because I'm taking that to Jack to right now."

"But…you can't just go into his non-evil laboratory," Omi objected.

"Oh, yes I can," Kimiko argued, seizing the plate and storming off down the hallway. The others watched her with awe. Rai was probably the most shocked of all. Perhaps…maybe…Kimiko really _did_ care for him…

(-)

The concerned Japanese girl quickly tapped her way past the Xiaolin Temple's dormitory hallway and turned down the well that led to Jack's lab. The heat of the plate was scalding her palms, so she had to switch it from right to left whenever it got too hot in one hand. Finally, she shifted the plate to her left hand to use her right for knocking on the door.

For the first time, she really got a look at the "Jack Spicer's Non Evil Laboratory" sign and it almost made her laugh. It was just like him to use the same equipment and just tweak it to be good.

Still, there was no official answer from within, though whirring kept droning in her eardrums from some device. "Jack!" Kimiko yelled, rapping against the signboard again. "It's Kimiko! I need to talk to you."

_Whirrrrrr__…_

"I'm sorry!" She yelled again. "I don't speak motor!" She frowned and sulked a little. Jack couldn't hear her. Well, that was no surprise, those motors were loud enough.

She pushed a hand against the door, but immediately pulled it back, remembering what had happened last time she had tried to barge in. Now what should she do? She thought of slipping the plate under the door, but the space wasn't big enough. Kimiko sighed and was just about to turn away, when a different noise interrupted her.

There came a terrible, painful thumping, followed by a cry of pain…which sounded very much like Jack's voice. That was it. This called for drastic measures.

Kimiko burst through the painted door and rushed in, setting the plate down on a side table near the entrance. "_Jack_?" she called. Something terrible could have happened to him, and from the sound of it, it must have really hurt! Kimiko was rushing so madly around the lab that she didn't really notice her surroundings.

At last, she discovered Jack lying sprawled out on the dingy floor when she nearly tripped over him. "Jack! Ohmigosh, are you okay?" she exclaimed, kneeling down to his level.

"D-Don't come any closer!" Jack sputtered forth, trying to drag himself out of her sight.

"What happened?" Kimiko insisted. "Did you fall down?"

"I'm fine," Jack replied, though it was clearly a lie.

Kimiko got a good look at him before he pulled himself behind a desk leg. Jack looked strangely tired and pained… Still, a few minutes later, he stepped back out, a towel draped around his neck, and panting like he'd just run a marathon.

"I'm sorry…" he gasped. "I didn't…know…you'd be…stopping by…"

Then, Kimiko finally noticed the sleeveless Frankenstein shirt that he was once again wearing, and the various complex exercise machines that filled the room. "Uh…have you been _exercising_?" she asked in amazement.

"Well, yeah," Jack answered, finally catching his wind. "I'm working out. I've got to be strong to make it up to your level." He reached out and grabbed another protein shake sitting on a nearby desk.

At first, Kimiko was shocked and impressed, but the more she stared at Jack, the more she noticed that something had to be wrong. There were bruises on his arms, legs, and face, as if he'd already fallen down a few times before, and his entire arm was trembling as he struggled to tip the shake into his mouth. "Well, why don't you take a little break?" Kimiko suggested. "I brought you supper."

Jack slowly shook his head, and shakily lowered his arm. "I can't…I have a schedule." He splashed some water on his pale face and it slowly turned flush red, like a color-changing water toy.

"Well, you need some rest," Kimiko insisted. "Besides, the food will help you grow stronger and give you energy."

"Well, alright," Jack finally agreed. "It might help." He picked up the plate and made a little face at it, but stabbed a piece of chicken and shoved it in his mouth.

Kimiko watched him eat for a moment, before at last asking what she'd been wondering ever since she'd first seen the exercise equipment in his room. "Where'd you get all this stuff, anyway? It must have cost a fortune for all this advanced gym equipment…"

"Nope," Jack answered, grinning up at her. "I made 'em all myself. I just printed out the advertisements and used them as a reference." He turned his attention back to the plate of meat and rice, while Kimiko marveled at the devices surrounding her.

Those were some pretty high-tech treadmills, elastic and iron body sculpting centers, and even some giant, hulking structures of metal that she couldn't identify. Well, he wasn't the Dragon of Metal for nothing. Suddenly, it had become "Jack Spicer's Non-Evil Gymnasium".

Very soon after, Jack had finished his delivered supper and washed it down with yet another protein shake. "Yeah. Thank you, Kimiko. It feels a little better now." Finally, it was beginning to sink into Jack's thick, one-track mind… Kimiko was here right now! And she wasn't repulsed by him! She'd even come here on her own, at least to his knowledge. She hadn't said anything about Omi or Master Fung making her deliver supper. "Yeah!" Jack cried, the spark of motivation running through his body again. "I feel stronger already! Well…I have to get back to the schedule! And…thanks so much!"

Kimiko smiled and waved as he jumped back onto one of the machines and began to press his arms together, repeatedly. As she exited back out into the hallway, she began to think strange, shocking thoughts, and at first she couldn't believe that she was thinking them. But she couldn't stop them, as much as she herself denied them. Jack was actually kind of…cute when he was like that. He'd actually been quite nice to her, and it suddenly made her happy to see him light up with sudden inspiration. He really was trying to improve, wasn't he?

But that was other strange, distressing thought. Jack _was_ working very hard…perhaps _too_ hard. She'd seen the state he was in when she entered. That thudding and his pale, bruised body… What had suddenly possessed him to start his exercising routine, anyway? Well, she decided, it could be worse, right? Unfortunately, she was exactly correct. It could be worse…and it would be worse.

(-)

Late that night, Jack struggled onto his rectangular body measurement scale. Today had been yet another productive day of Operation: Body Transformation. This had been going on for two days now…he should see _some _difference. However, when he stepped on the all-encompassing scale, he saw that, to his disappointment, he hadn't gained anything. He'd actually lost a little body fat, but any loss of body fat should be a gain, right?

However, when he tried to step back off, his legs just refused to work anymore and he desperately grabbed the worktable to prevent a painful fall. Somehow, Jack at last managed to drag himself on top of the table, and clicked off the 70-watt bendable light. This felt familiar…

_Yeah…_ Jack realized. _This feels exactly like the work I had to do in the future. It took a long time, and was really painful. But, eventually it made me stronger. At least, I think I remember that it did…_ His memories of that time were fuzzy, since he'd eventually trained himself to block everything out. Still, if he followed the schedule close enough, and all of his calculations were correct, he should start seeing results tomorrow.

Comforted with this thought, he closed his eyes, and again blocked out the throbbing throughout his body. And that night, his hopes turned into a strange dream in which he'd suddenly switched bodies with Raimundo…and Kimiko was kissing him.

(-)

"_What the_…?" It was a miracle that there was enough breath left in Jack's body to yell in frustration at the glaring little lights below him. He kicked the metallic, square device. "…Darn thing's probably broken…"

He shuffled up in front of the mirror on the closet and studied his reflection once again. …Nothing. Jack's head thudded against the smooth, cool mirror, exhausted and frustrated. _So much for drastic measures.__ If only there were Shen-Gong-Wu to give you strength… Hmm…_

Even though he was extremely tired and couldn't think straight, he suddenly remembered that newest Shen-Gong-Wu. The Rag of Resurrection…it could heal anyone. But, what if it were used on a person who was already healthy? Would it make him healthier, and give him some muscles? Another part of his mind argued that that would be cheating. Like Shen-Gong-Wu steroids. Yet, if it could do the trick, then there was no use killing himself every day like this.

The sore teenage boy lifted himself from his platform in determination. He slowly and gingerly made his way out the sliding door, and straight into the cylindrical building that housed the Xiaolin Temple's magical items. Wow, they really did leave it open for anyone to get in, didn't they? Jack eagerly tapped down the spiraling staircase of the vault, although he resented that each step he took down was another one he'd have to climb back up on the way out.

It took a long time to search through all the various stone draws. He came across tons of other Shen-Gong-Wu, even the ones that had belonged to him, and finally, he began to reach the bottom of the pit. At last, in one of the two last slots, the silvery sheet of fabric sat on its blue cushion padding.

As Jack removed it from its perch, he happened to look to the side and noticed two locked bins resting against the back wall. The one closest to him was short and square, while the other was long and rectangular. There were all sorts of locks, bolts, and force fields surrounding them.

"Those must be the dangerous Shen-Gong-Wu," Jack said to himself. "The Sapphire Dragon and my Soul Scepter." It felt weird, saying it like that- _his _Soul Scepter. Well, it _was_ his; none of the other Xiaolin Dragons could use it.

Finally, he pulled away from the suspicious containers and focused his attention back on the Shen-Gong-Wu clutched in his hand.

Meanwhile, little did Jack know, but it was actually the "checkup" day, and at this very moment, Dojo was entering the room, preparing for his weekly magic test. On one random day a week, Dojo would come down into the Vault to check the magic levels of all the Shen-Gong-Wu and make sure the two forbidden ones were properly protected. While the miniaturized dragon slipped down the stone steps, Jack struggled with the rag, wondering where he should place it.

Finally, he just slapped it over his right upper arm, and called aloud, "Rag of Resurrection!" A bright aura of piercing white light erupted from under the fabric. Jack looked down to his arm, as the Shen-Gong-Wu reacted, and hopefully, improved his condition. The light was very hot, and it felt as if it were searing his skin, but that, he hoped, was only the pain of muscle growing in a short amount of time. However, this almost felt like needles stabbing into his arm, and he wondered if it were really growing.

Thankfully, at that moment, Dojo was halfway down the stairs, and had caught the call and noticed the bright flash of light. He scuttled faster down the steps, frantically to see who was in their vault. The old dragon wasn't surprised to see Jack Spicer standing there…but the boy was cringing in pain as the lit Rag of Resurrection clung to his arm. Just then, a trickle of blood ran down Jack's arm, and then Dojo knew what he had really done.

The dragon literally flew up to his arm, tearing the rag away from it, in a panic. "What did you think you were doing?" he barked at the suspicious teenager. "You shouldn't use the Rag of Resurrection on yourself if you're not even injured!"

The sound of the snapping voice broke Jack out of his concentrating, pain-resisting mode, and finally, he glanced back down at his arm, and saw what the rag had really been doing. The skin over where the Shen-Gong-Wu had just been was choppy and torn up. It had even begun to bleed. It was like the object had been burning him. "What…?" he slowly asked. "I thought that thing couldn't possibly hurt anyone!"

"Yes, normally it never does," Dojo explained, while scolding him at the same time. "But if you try to use it on something, or _someone_ that's perfectly fine, the effect backfires. …Why were you down here anyway? And why would you want to…?"

"I…I was trying to install the new Shen-Gong-Wu ordering system I told you guys about!" Jack quickly lied. "Yeah! But, then I got side-tracked looking at all the Shen-Gong-Wu, and then I wondered what would happen if I…did that." He gripped his arm to slow the bleeding, and tried to look innocent, making puppy eyes at Dojo. "…I didn't know…owwwww, it hurts so much!"

"Yeah, yeah," Dojo replied, waving him off. "I won't interrogate you anymore. Go get a bandage before you contaminate our vault."

"Okay!" Jack readily complied, not even minding the difficult, painful climb back to the top of the vault.

As soon as he disappeared around the central cylinder, Dojo stared down at the Rag of Resurrection and shook his head. "I still don't get it," he thought aloud. "What would ever possess that kid to try this thing on himself when he wasn't injured?" He snaked back down towards the end, and placed the fabric back into its stone slot. "…He's got to have some kind of mental illness. I mean, Dragons of Metal are usually kind of weird, but…" Dojo turned and put the incident out of his mind, as he focused on the many barriers surrounding the Sapphire Dragon, the Soul Scepter…and Wuya. Yes, they were plenty strong. But so were other things…

(-)

Kimiko lied, daintily in her reclining beach chair, sunning herself and waiting for her nails to dry as she watched the boys playing in the lake. Omi and Rai were taking turns whooshing by on the suspended rope. It was a calm summer's day, and the Xiaolin Warriors were taking a break, playing in the cool refreshment of the temple's pond. Clay was swimming laps around the coast to build his strength, and after Rai fell in, he decided to join him. They all seemed to be having fun…all but one of them.

"Hey…" Omi asked, looking around the area. "Where's Jack Spicer?"

Hearing this, Rai stood up to give his input. "Aw, Spicer's probably scared of the water or something; you know what a big baby he is."

"Maybe he doesn't know how to swim," Clay suggested.

"I bet he's just afraid to get a tan!" Rai joked.

Though she chuckled a little along with them, Kimiko thought she knew where Jack really was. He was probably on his homemade exercise machines right now, working like crazy. She'd already been worried about this before, but lately, he'd seemed…even more determined than before.

If that wasn't enough, the last time she'd seen him, he'd even had a bandage wrapped around his arm, like he'd seriously injured himself. When asked about it, he'd instantly replied, "Oh, I was playing around with my blowtorch and kind of set my arm on fire." The problem was, the way he'd said it…made it sound like he'd written it down and been practicing it.

So while she should be enjoying herself, this was brewing around in her mind, and she hadn't even been in the water at all yet. She looked down at her drying rainbow fingernails as Omi did a cannonball in the distance.

Suddenly, a cold, wet spatter splashed over Kimiko's legs and she let out a shriek in alarm. "Rai!" she cried, looking over at the guilty Brazilian standing at the edge of the lake near her.

"What's the matter?" he teased, grinning suspiciously. "You afraid to get _wet_?" Then, he swiftly dumped an entire bucket of lake water over her head.

"Augh!" Kimiko yelled again, now drenched in water. "I just did my hair, too! And…_noooo_! Now my rainbows are running!" She forcefully jumped up from her lawn chair and gave Rai the evil pointed eyes. "That's it, Rai! I've had it up to here with you! You're really going to get it now!" Then, she pounced, and shoved him into the lake. The two of them splashed down right beside Clay, and caught him in the crossfire of their splash war.

Omi was only one to remain unaffected, sitting on the side of the lake, meditating in peace. He heard the squealing and crying of his teammates, concentrating on the waves of energy around him. This was a new magical technique that Master Fung had been perfecting with him, and now he could perform it by himself. There were the playful energies around him…but then he sensed another energy faltering in the distance. His beady eyes popped back open, and he looked, frantically down at Rai, Kimiko, and Clay in the water.

At last, Clay looked up and noticed him sitting up all alert like that. "What's the matter there, Omi, partner? Ya look you've just been bit by a rattlesnake."

"Something's not right…" Omi began to say, gravely into the distance.

At the sound of his hardened voice, Kimiko at last cooled off and turned from Raimundo. "Yeah…" she hesitantly agreed. "…Maybe something happened to Jack!"

Omi nodded. "I believe that must be what I'm feeling."

Kimiko worriedly jumped back out of the lake, and Rai and Clay followed her in concern. The guys pulled on some tee-shirts, and Kimiko tied a towel around her waist. They all jumped into sandals, and sprinted across the light green grass of the temple's yard. "So why would you think it was Jack?" Clay asked as he came running up beside Kimko.

"Well…you know the way he's been acting…and he keeps exercising like mad and hurting himself."

"That sounds completely normal- except for the exercising part," Omi reasoned. "But still, this energy must mean something, and I can tell for sure that it is emanating from inside!"

"It could be another Shen-Gong-Wu," Rai tried to persuade them.

"Nah, Omi can't sense Shen-Gong-Wu yet. He'd not _that _powerful," Kimiko was quick to add. Yes, she normally never said bad things about him nowadays, but sometimes he needed to be taken down a peg.

The little monk by her side hung his head a little, but completely forgot about her comment when they reached the side sliding door of the Xiaolin Temple. The four original Dragons slid into the hallway again, and quickly tiptoed to the stairwell leading to Jack's haunt, trying not to trail water on the floor.

Kimiko was the first to the door, and at least this time she didn't have to worry about knocking. The painted concrete wall was left ajar, and she could see bits of the interior. Some of the machines were indeed running, but then she wondered how he could be on two exercise machines at once.

Rai's eyes widened when he peered into the room. He knew he was the one responsible for Jack's sudden fitness craze, but he didn't really think he'd go as far as to build himself a personal gym.

Kimiko stepped forward and creaked the door the rest of the way open.

"You're just going to conga right in?" Omi cried, gripping the sides of the head in anxiety.

"No, but we might _waltz _right in," Rai teased.

"Well, he left the door open," Kimiko tried to reason. "That's just inviting the whole world to come in. And this is an emergency!"

"I suppose you're right," Omi at last agreed. "But…what if…?"

Kimiko finally grabbed his sleeve and pulled her little questioning partner through the iron-plated doorway.

The four of them looked around. There were different machines whirring in different corners, lines of equipment resembling metal sculptures, and all kinds of tables, charts, and pictures stuck to the walls with odd-shaped tacks. These really looked interesting, and Kimiko almost wandered over to go read one, before realizing what they were really here for. "Jack!" she yelled into the sea of iron. "Where are you? Are you okay?"

"Yo, Spicer dude!" Rai added to her call, searching around in another portion of the non-evil gym.

"Ollie ollie oxen free!" Clay echoed, placing his hands on the sides of his mouth for effect.

"Uh…Clay, sorry, but I don't think that's going to work," Kimiko told him, raising her eyebrows.

At last, Omi, since he was the closest to the ground, gave out a shout and ran to the others. "He's here! I found him!" he cried, herding them over to a different corner. Indeed, Jack was lying on the floor again, as if he'd fallen off something. He was pressed hard against the concrete, his limbs trembling, though the rest of his body remained stationary. Omi kneeled next to him and gently tried to get his attention. "Jack Spicer…" There was no response.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Kimiko knelt next to him in concern. Clay joined them, while Raimundo hung back. He had no idea how much his little speech had affected his new partner. Maybe he had gone a little too far…

Kimiko gently lifted Jack's head from the gray floor, disregarding the hot, moist flesh she felt on his face. He'd obviously been exercising again…but he was awake. In fact, his ruby red eyes were flickering back up at her in her hand, though he didn't acknowledge her presence. His face was completely white once again. "Jack?" Kimiko attempted communication. "…Why are you wearing that face paint again? I thought you'd decided not to wear it anymore."

At last, Jack's white lips parted and he was actually speaking between his panting. "I'm…not wearing…face…paint…" And then, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell motionless, onto her lap.

"Oh my God!" Kimiko cried, cradling Jack's head in her arms. "Is he okay?"

Clay stepped in at that point, and fortunately, he found the unconscious goth's pulse and breathing. "He probably fainted," the Texan surmised.

"Oh my gosh…" Kimiko repeated, still worried. "Should we take him to a hospital?"

"He should wake up in a few minutes," Clay said, gathering Jack's long body into his thick, strong arms.

"Need any help there?" Rai spoke up, stepping forward. He at least wanted to do _something_ for him, because he felt terribly responsible for this whole event.

"No, I'm fine," Clay replied. "Actually, he's pretty light." The worried Xiaolin Warriors followed him out of the door and back up the stairs. Clay at last stopped further into the temple at a cushioned platform, normally used as a bench, and laid the limp body gently on the soft top.

The others all pitched in at that point, rushing around to find things to help. Omi fluffed up a pillow and slid it under Jack's head, and Rai produced a mini towel to mop up his sweaty face. Kimiko gently tucked a blanket over him. "Please, wake up, Jack…" she hoped aloud, and then, just as if she had commanded it, his eyes began to flutter open.

"Huh?" was the first word he spoke. "What happened? Where am I?"

"You fainted," Kimiko informed him. "Do you feel okay? You were really pale earlier…"

"I'm fine," Jack insisted, crossing his arms. "I could've handled it myself."

"No, you couldn't have!" Kimiko argued. "You were overworked. You whole body was too exhausted. You could've had a heart attack!"

"But I'm only fourteen," Jack tried to argue.

"It doesn't matter!" Kimiko yelled. "Whatever age you are, you can still get a heart attack from going crazy like you were doing."

"Yeah," Rai affirmed, stepping up beside her, hoping that his words would be more meaningful. "That's what they call "overtraining". You could seriously hurt yourself working out like that. In fact, you're only making yourself weaker."

"Well, that could explain why I've _lost_ a pound…" Jack finally began to agree. "But, I've still got to be strong!" He moved to the end of the couch and attempted to stand up.

"No!" Kimiko cried, pushing him back down. "Don't get up! You need to rest! You're too worn out!"

Jack sighed and settled back into the plush bench. "Well, could you at least bring me a protein shake? I'm starving; I didn't eat lunch today."

"You shouldn't just have a shake," Kimiko insisted. "I'll go get you something to eat too." As she rushed off down the hall towards the temple pantry, Omi, Rai, and Clay had a staring contest with Jack.

At last, Rai attempted to get his point across explicitly. "I…was looking at those things on your walls…" he began to say, but realized that that probably wasn't a good starting sentence. Jack's face was turning redder and redder by the minute, and he was suddenly reminding him of Kimiko. "…Because I was concerned," he quickly added. "And…all those different plans and calculations…they were completely wrong."

Jack's face was now a lovely shade of bruised plum, and Rai nervously tried to figure out a way not to upset him any further. "Well…you see…" he desperately tried to choke back his laughter. He couldn't believe how clueless this guy was, but he had to keep his laughter in. "You're supposed to follow _one_ of those exercise plans, on _one _piece of equipment…usually the one it came with… You're not supposed to be on all the different plans at once!"

"But that doesn't make sense." Jack tried to argue. "Then how would you improve in all areas?"

That was partly true, Rai admitted, because many of the new equipment today were just for abs, or just for arm and leg exercises. Still, there were plans and machines that worked all different parts of the body, and he knew Jack had to have some of them in his non-evil gymnasium. "Just…promise me you won't do that again. Kimiko's right, you could hurt yourself doing all that in a short amount of time. You can't grow muscles in three days. It happens gradually, over time."

The former evil genius only turned away from him, looking frustrated, and Rai knew he shouldn't press the issue any more.

At last, Kimiko came running back into the room, holding the protein shake he'd asked for, and surprisingly enough, a hamburger, resting on a blue plate.

Jack stared in fascination as she ran up to the side of the bench and handed the items to him. "Uh…where? What?" he managed to sputter out as he grabbed the plate and set the shake aside.

"Well, I know you said you liked hamburgers, so I found some buns in the refrigerator, and cut up the meat to fit…I know it's not the best, but…" Kimiko had been all worried about her hamburger making not being good enough, but was relieved when Jack's face lit up and he took a big bite out of it.

Omi looked a little nervous as he looked up at Kimiko. "To think we could actually make burgers out of the things _we _have…"

"It's just for this once," Kimiko assured him. "I wanted to give him something he liked, so I'd be sure he'd eat it. Just…don't let Master Fung know." The others nodded.

"Well, it looks like he's going to be fine now," Clay commented, turning to gather up his things back at the lake. The others slowly followed him.

Jack, in the midst of his burger bliss, didn't even realize that they had gone. He kept repeating, over and over in his head, _She brought me a burger…she _made_ me a burger… _Kimiko _made _me _a _burger!

(-)

That evening, the Xiaolin Dragons were lined up on the red carpet, as Dojo slinked in front of them, checking their presences off. But, as soon as he looked at the shortened line in front of him, he knew that one of them was missing. "Hey…" the little dragon asked, glancing around with his fake glasses. "Where's Jack?"

"He had a little problem," Omi tried to tell them.

"Uh…he's just not feeling well," Rai clarified.

"He's resting on a cot in the extra room," Kimiko added.

"Well…that's unusual," Master Fung suspiciously commented, stepping down the stone stairs to meet them.

"Actually, he _has _been acting odd…" Dojo stated. "Like yesterday, he almost burnt his arm off with the Rag of Resurrection."

"The Rag of Resurrection?" Omi questioned. "But I thought you said that Shen-Gong-Wu was harmless."

"It is, when used properly. He was trying to use it on himself when he was perfectly healthy."

"That liar," Kimiko said, half to herself. "He told me it was one of his blowtorches." She wandered over to a shelf on the side wall.

Rai stared into the distance after her, still feeling guilty. Jack could have even burnt his arm off, and all because he'd told him that he needed to be macho in order for Kimiko to fall for him. Still, he reminded himself, he'd just been giving advice. It wasn't like he'd physically made Jack do all that crazy stuff.

Suddenly, Kimiko let out a shriek, and everyone turned to look at her. "It's gone!" she yelled. "I left my PDA right here a few days ago. I don't believe I ever came back to get it…it just disappeared!" She was freaking out, not only because it was an expensive piece of equipment, but because she also used it as a personal mini-diary. Whoever had found it would have complete access to all her secret thoughts.

"What are you so upset about?" Rai told her, calmly. "That thing didn't work anymore anyway. You couldn't even get it to load up."

"Well…that's true," Kimiko realized, finally beginning to calm down. "No one would even be able to _get in _to read my, uh…personal stuff."

"Now…" Dojo spoke up, getting the four Dragons' attention. "Could we get on with the training here?"

"Yes," Master Fung piped up. "You know the routine for today, don't you?"

The four of them nodded their heads like a group of bobble-head dolls. They'd known the routine for several days by now.

"Good," Master Fung continued. "Dojo, could you supervise them? I'm going to have a little talk with Jack."

"Uh…okay…" Dojo answered, glancing questioningly up at his partner.

"Dojo? Supervise?" Rai spoke up, a grin breaking out on his face. "Ha ha ha ha!"

The little dragon crossed his blue-green arms. "Look, don't give me any trouble. I was up all night checking the Shen-Gong-Wu, and then Master Fung made me come with him to the altar and the scour the ancient writings…"

"Why?" Omi asked, putting a little finger up to his mouth. "Is there something you can't remember?"

Dojo shrugged. "I don't know everything, you know." The Xiaolin Dragons looked at each other in nervousness. "There may be something out there…something so powerful, that without your complete powers, you will never defeat it…"

The four of them, terrified of this unnamed force, rushed into position and began to practice by themselves.

Dojo smiled, sneakily and curled up to take a nap. It wasn't like he'd been lying to them. There was something approaching, but even he wouldn't know what it was until much later.

(-)

Thankfully, when Master Fung entered the extra downstairs room, Jack was still awake, although he looked like he would fall asleep any minute with those covers clutched to his chest. Finally, the bald, bearded temple master stepped up next to the bench, and Jack's red eyes immediately shot up at him. "Young Jack…" the grave man began, his frown drooping a little more.

"I…I'll come back to the training session!" Jack frantically replied. "I-I'm okay," he continued to insist, painfully sitting up on the bench.

"No, no," Master Fung quickly calmed him, cupping his hands over his shoulders. "Don't worry; I wasn't angry with you for not showing up today. The others all told me that you weren't feeling well…"

Jack blinked at him, but lied back down at his command. "So, uh…what did you come here for?"

"I need to explain a few things to you," Master Fung seriously told him. "And you need to please heed this information and keep it in mind."

Jack's eyes widened in interest as he stared up at Master Fung, almost afraid. "Okay…"

"Well, I just thought I should inform you… Historically, Dragons of Metal have always been weak-bodied creatures. It serves as an amplifier for your other, more powerful powers." Jack looked a little confused, but kind of understood about his lineage. "And…you probably don't want to hear this, but…up until now, all of the Dragons of Metal have been female."

Of course, Jack frowned at this. _Yeah, yeah,_ his inner mind criticized, _now even the temple master is telling me that I'm a weakling._

"What I mean to tell you is that which I also need to inform the other young Dragons… You need protection. They need to protect you. But you need to protect _yourself_ as well."

Jack cocked his head a little. This guy never made sense, and his sappy clichés were beginning to annoy him.

"What I mean is you need to take better care of yourself. It's important to us; it's important to the entire cause."

At last, Jack just nodded at him, trying to get him to go away. "You're right. I'll get better really fast. You'll see."

Master Fung frowned again and began to walk away. "I hope you're serious about this."

"Of course I am!" Jack replied, trying to hide his smile. "You know I'd do anything to help. I _am_ a Xiaolin Dragon after all."

Master Fung raised his eyebrows, but finally exited the room. At least if Jack was healthy enough to scheme, then maybe he'd stop the pointless speed-exercising he'd been doing lately.

Just as the old man's blue robe disappeared behind a stone doorway, Jack sat up and let his grin spread onto his face. _Yup, _he thought, pulling out a certain piece of toilet paper. _He'll see. They'll all see. Soon, they'll all know how really strong I can be. Hey, that rhymes…_ Glancing down at the Operations list scrawled in black marker, Jack felt confident. This had been a last resort, but he knew this last piece of the plan would be the one to do the trick. Operation: Construction. Perhaps brains really did beat brawn…

(-)

The very next day, the Xiaolin Warriors were once again attempting to spend the hot June day playing at the lake. The problem was, now they had extra baggage.

When Master Fung dismissed them, and Rai insisted that they pick up where they left off at the lake, Kimiko defiantly stopped him from just rushing off. "Wait a minute. If you just run off like that, the same thing might happen all over again. We have to force Jack to come with us so he won't be doing anything stupid while we're away," she had said.

"It depends on what you define as 'stupid," Rai had teased back, but grudgingly agreed to her reasoning.

"Besides," Omi had added. "If we're going to have a Xiaolin Dragon pool party, we have to have _all _the Xiaolin Dragons!"

However, at this moment, even Kimiko was beginning to regret her decision. She was walking along in her blue bikini, with Omi in a tube at her side. Rai and Clay walked confidently in front of them, in swimming trunks and with towels slung around their necks. Finally, at the back of the crowd, Jack was waddling after them, holding about three towels and a pile of inflatable junk. His swirling goggles had been replaced by clear scuba goggles, and only his head and his sandaled feet were visible poking out of the inflatable wall.

"Er…Jack?" Kimiko asked, glancing back at the odd sight. "Do you really need all that equipment?"

"Well, no," he admitted. "But I, uh, haven't gone swimming in a long time, so I thought I'd bring all of it!"

"We were right the first time," Omi commented, walking along, proudly. "He really _is_ afraid of the water!"

At last, Jack separated from his ballooning shield for a moment to whack Omi over the head with an inflatable alligator. "I am _not_ afraid of the water! He protested. "I just…haven't been swimming in a long time."

"Like forever," Omi muttered, and this time earned a bop over the head by a turtle inner tube.

Kimiko smiled a bit and turned back to follow Clay and Rai. They were almost at the lake by now. It looked like things were getting back to normal. "The last one to the rope swing will turn into a foul-smelling egg!" Omi called when he saw the lake just ahead of them.

"Last one to swing is a rotten egg!" Kimiko corrected, and broke into a sprint. Clay and Rai picked up the message, and ran with them, and they all raced each other to the rope, with Jack hobbling after. At last, Rai jumped and grabbed the rope first, splashing down into the middle of the lake. Kimiko jumped past Clay and reached it second, with the cowboy following right behind. Omi stopped at the edge of the lake and looked down at the three of them, waiting for someone to toss the rope back over. A few minutes later, Jack came up behind him, struggling to carry all of the inflatables and still keep the towels around him.

"Ha!" Rai cried from down below. "Jack's the rotten egg!"

"Well, it wasn't fair," Jack tried to excuse himself. "You didn't have anything to carry, so you could run faster."

"Well, you didn't have to carry all that stuff either," Omi argued. He finally got a hold of the rope and swung into the lake along with the others. He flung it over to their balloon-bogged partner.

Jack waved it away and turned to occupy the beach chair Kimko had been sitting in yesterday. He slowly peeled away his shell of objects, placing them on the side of the chair, and draping the towels over its white, plastic back. He then settled down and pulled a bottle out of the knapsack on the side.

When Rai and Kimiko shifted closer to the shore in their splashing battle, they noticed him sitting there without any body armor. It was strange and almost disturbing to see him in just swim trunks and sandals. And as Kimko stared up at his body, she had to admit that his flat torso and spindly arms and legs were highly unattractive.

"Hey, Spicer!" Rai called up to him. "Why don't you come in? You're not _afraid_, are you?"

"Of course not," Jack bragged back as he squirted gobs of suntan lotion on himself. "But…well, something could happen. You know, metal rusts in water…"

"You can't use that as an excuse," Kimiko spoke up, standing up beside Rai with her hands on her hips. "Because I'm _fire_, and I have no problem with water…"

"I just don't want to right now," Jack replied, trying to rub the excess piles of suntan lotion onto his skin and remove the white streaks. "…I'm working on my tan."

"Aw, c'mon, Jack. You know, swimming is really good exercise," Rai coaxed.

"Maybe later," he finally told them, and they were satisfied.

Rai and Kimiko got Clay and Omi involved in the splash war, and they were screaming and laughing like the kids they were, just having fun being together. Clay took a beach ball from Jack's pile of inflatables, and they played water volleyball for an hour.

Once, Rai served the ball so hard that it flew out of the lake and straight into Jack. Thankfully, he just threw it back at them. He had been trying to hit Rai back with it, but missed by a few yards.

Finally, the Dragons were worn out, and Rai, Kimiko, and Omi were standing just at the shore, resting and drying off. Clay remained in the lake for a little bit afterwards, swimming laps, as he always did.

Rai looked over and noticed to his astonishment, that Jack was actually standing up next to the table on which all his equipment was stacked. He was sifting through the plastic animals, trying to find that bottle he'd just had an hour ago. Rai got to his feet and walked over towards the table to confront him. After yesterday's incident and what Master Fung had told him about Jack needing protection, he thought he should try to be a little nicer and friendlier to his impressionable goth friend. "Hey, Jack…" he started, approaching the other side of the plastic and looking over at him.

Jack looked up, but when he saw who was speaking, turned back to his pile and muttered, "What do _you_ want?"

"Well, I just wanted to say that when I was talking to you that time… I didn't mean for you to go all crazy and hurt yourself."

"I don't have anything against you," Jack replied, glaring back over at him. "You were only telling the truth."

"…Then why are you giving me that evil eye?" Rai hesitantly questioned.

"Maybe because you've got what I want," Jack coldly stated.

"Why wouldn't you come swim with us, anyway?" Rai asked, deliberately trying to change the subject. He didn't like that hateful look Jack was giving him; it was almost like he had suddenly gone back to being evil.

That was when Jack looked away from the brown-skinned Brazilian in front of him, and noticed Omi and Kimiko in the distance. They were both staring at them. They probably were only wondering what they were talking about, or just surprised that they were talking at all, but to Jack, they were staring at how worse he looked compared to Rai, even though they were the same size.

Out of nowhere, Jack rushed forward and pushed his companion sideways, straight into the water. Startled, Rai popped back out of the surface, his hair wet again. "Hey!" he cried, shaking a fist at his unpredictable partner. "What was _that_ for?"

"You were in my way!" Jack cried in frustration, standing at the edge of the lake, and glaring down at his role model. He looked exceptionally angry this time, but that might have had to do with the fact that his whole body had turned red. From his spot just below the ledge, Rai wondered why he hadn't noticed what a sunburn Jack had when he'd been standing right next to him.

Finally obeying his urge for revenge, Rai reached up, grabbed Jack around the ankles, and tossed him into the lake beside him. By now, Omi, Kimiko, and even Clay had stopped what they were doing and were staring at the two boys with their mouths hanging open. Sure, Rai and Jack fought a lot, but it was usually over video games or chores, and it was never usually this bad.

A second later, Jack's head popped out of the water. He was gasping for air and splashing his arms around, helplessly.

"What's he _doing_?" Kimiko asked in alarm. "Can he even _swim_?"

"Maybe he's just playing a trick on us," Omi suggested. But the way Jack was floundering didn't look like just a hoax.

"Oh my gosh!" Kimiko cried, as Jack's head bobbed below the water again. "He's really drowning! Someone's got to go get him!" She stepped towards the water, but her assistance wasn't necessary.

Rai and Clay had already grabbed Jack's arms and were pulling him towards the shore. A few relieving second later, they dragged him back on shore, and he coughed and spluttered a bit, clearing his lungs of water.

"Gee, it's a good thing you noticed in time," Omi said. "None of us know RCP."

"We don't know CPR either," Kimiko corrected him.

"Hey, you okay, dude?" Rai asked, kneeling on the grassy shoreline, one of his arms still around the coughing Jack. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that you…"

At that point, Jack finally, forcefully stood up, flinging Rai's arm from his neck. "I didn't need you help," he replied, his voice hard. "You just go away and leave me alone! I hate you and your stupid temple anyway! All of you! You don't need me either; you only care about me now because I've got powers that you can use to your own advantage!"

"Jack, that's not it…" Kimiko tried to say, but the raging goth cut her off.

"And don't you even try to deny it! You all hate me, so I hate all you. Well, that's fine. If nothing changes tomorrow, then I'm leaving. It's settled." He stormed away before the others could try to calm him down, grabbing his pile of rubber toys and towels as he went.

"Gee…" Kimiko slowly asked, after Jack had disappeared from view. "What was _that_ all about?"

"I think Jack's got some low self-esteem issues…" Rai reluctantly spoke up, a worried expression passing over his tanned face.

"_What_?" Kimiko skeptically replied.

"Yeah," Omi said from behind them. "Jack Spicer and low self esteem do not belong together in the same sentence. …Unless you were saying 'Jack Spicer's nasty comment gave me low self esteem' or something like that."

"No, I really think something's wrong, because Jack Spicer hasn't _made_ any nasty comments in a long time, up until now." Rai hung his head, guiltily. "Actually, I have talked to him lately…and I kind of told him something…but, I didn't think he'd take it this seriously."

"_What_?" Kimiko insisted. "What did you tell him, Rai?"

Rai shuddered and looked over at her. "Well…I can't actually tell you. I promised I wouldn't tell…"

"Ooooh, they really are close friends, sharing secrets and everything!" Omi cried.

"Be quiet," Rai snapped. "But…I just couldn't tell you."

"_What did you tell him?_" Kimiko continued to demand. "You need to tell me, because it's getting really serious now and I need to know so I can help him. Please, Rai! I won't tell him that you told me."

Rai took a deep breath. "Well, alright, but you're not going to like it." Kimiko crossed her arms. "When I went to talk to him after that incident at the training session, he was actually more concerned about being viewed as an idiot in front of you than being behind everyone else. So, I told him that in order to win your heart…he should bulk up a bit…and get a tan, and stop wearing goggles…"

Kimiko stared at the ground and twisted strands of her black hair around in her fingers. "Wow…" she commented. "…I didn't know he liked me _that_ much… So, all that time, he was trying to impress me?" She looked out to the blue-roofed temple in the distance, and thought of the upset, angry, disgruntled boy that had just stomped off. She was the reason he'd been so upset. "…It's my fault he's like this. I have to go talk to him!" She hurried forward, but Rai held out an arm to stop her.

"No," he told her. "Not right now. Give him a while to be alone and cool off. …Sheesh, it sounds like I'm talking about you."

Kimiko at last consented, and the four of them walked back off to the temple. "Besides, you can always talk to him tomorrow. I'm sure Jack won't do anything too drastic in just twelve hours." Kimiko felt relieved as she walked back with them, but what could Rai possibly know about what was going on inside of Jack Spicer's non-evil laboratory at this very moment.

(-)

Jack grumbled and slammed his water (and appearance) protection gear onto the workbench in frustration. That stupid Raimundo had to ruin everything again, and make him look like an even bigger idiot for not being able to swim. It never failed. _Stupid Xiaolin Warriors and their stupid ideals, _he quietly fumed. _Stupid Master Fung and his "advice".__ Stupid temple and its horrible dress code._

_Stupid goggles, _he thought, ripping the rubber band from his head. _Stupid skinny body._He pulled on a towel, waiting until he dried off before putting his clothes back on. He looked into the full-length mirror on the door of his cabinet. He pulled on a towel, waiting until he dried off before putting his clothes back on. He looked into the full-length mirror on the door of his cabinet. _Stupid sunburn_, he thought, noticing his redness for the first time. Why hadn't he remembered? He was one of those fair-skinned types that couldn't get a tan, but only burned when they were exposed to the sun.

He then looked out at the mirror and evaluated his full appearance- a scrawny, sunburned boy, shivering in a towel, with flat, damp red hair, and glaring brown freckles all over the place. "Stupid mirror!" he suddenly cried out loud, seizing the object off of his cabinet door and smashing it against the cold concrete floor.

Jack panted for a few minutes and looked around the lab. There were glass pieces all around him, poking dangerously at his sandals, but at the moment, he didn't care. His narrowing red eyes were scanning the scrap metal piles in the different corner of the basement room. Last night, he'd destroyed all the exercise machines, returning them to the scrap metal state from whence they came. He'd have to make the most of his resources, and perform Operation: Construction with only this to make it out of.

For a moment, he longed to be living back at his house, where he could trick his father into letting him buy a few laser beams. This time, he'd have to make his own lasers, and perform this experiment all without the aid of super-powerful computerized mechanics. However, as he stared at the different pieces in the piles around him, he thought he might be able to assemble the type of machine he had in mind.

But, Jack diverted himself from the calling metal for the moment. Before he could even attempt to create this machine, he'd have to first test its function and make a prototype. Jack hurried to his computer table, where he fished a little glass container out of a drawer on the side. He'd have to find a way to multiply its contents… Suddenly, in a brainstorm, Jack grabbed two metal pans, some lighting rods, and other electrical equipment, along with two squirrels that were playing on the branches of a tree just outside. The first test had begun.

(-)

_Bang, bang, bang. _Kimiko once again found herself standing worriedly on the other side of Jack's painted door, staring into the lumpy texture and wondering what was going on behind it. Unfortunately, she had let herself be side-tracked by Rai and the others. For the rest of the first day, she'd even forgotten that Jack lived here at all. It seemed that everyone was trying to block the whole incident out of their memories.

Kimiko had only remembered when they'd been outside practicing and she happened to look in the distance at the lake where it had occurred. Her mind had screamed at her for not caring, and she'd realized with horror that she hadn't even seen Jack for two days.

And here she was now, in the same position she'd been in twice before. Yet, this time, she had no idea what he could be doing now…or if he was even still alive. That thought crawled through her, and suddenly she didn't want to know. What if…? She'd never forgive herself.

At last, Kimiko grabbed the handle and forced her way in, with this terrible fear growing inside of her. Thankfully, on the other side, she found a very irritated-looking Jack Spicer, surprisingly in his trench coat again, glaring back at her.

"_What do you want_?" he forcefully asked, placing his hands on his hips.

"I…came to see you," Kimiko replied. "I'm so sorry…I was going to come earlier, and then the others just...made me forget. Jack…I need to have a talk with you."

Oddly enough, a little smile appeared across Jack's face when she said this. "Well, sure. We'll see what you have to say after _this_." He jabbed his thumb behind him, gesturing to a large, hulking machine sitting in the center of the room. It resembled a long passageway, with all kinds of knobs, lasers, and needles pointing out on the inside. A dial on the outside was pointing straight up, to the label "R2", while some strange reddish substance swished around in a tank right next to it.

"What is _that_ thing?" Kimiko asked, staring at the red gunk, half disgusted and half suspicious.

Jack smiled at her again. "You're about to find out!" he cried, and then turned back to the machine.

Kimiko's bright blue eyes widened as Jack suddenly broke into a run towards the machine. He was going to run straight into it! What would this odd and disgusting contraption do to him? She had no idea what the thing was, but she could clearly see the interior, and it didn't look too promising. All those needles and lasers… Whatever that thing was, it didn't look the least bit safe. Maybe…he was trying to kill himself! "No!" the word burst from Kimiko's mouth. "Jack! _Don't go in there_!"

He didn't slow down a bit. There was only one option now. Kimiko zipped forward, and with all her might, sprang forward, crashing into Jack, and holding him against the ground inches away from the contraption's door. She was panting, more from her frantic adrenaline rush than from the exercise.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jack snapped at her, although he looked as shocked as she was, his red eyes enlarged and his thick eyebrows raised.

"_Me_?" Kimiko cried back, finally catching her breath. She forced herself to look straight into Jack's face. It was a little frightening, but she knew she had to do this. "What did you think _you_ were doing? That machine looks dangerous; you could kill yourself in something like that! I won't let you commit suicide!"

At last, Jack smirked in response, which somehow made Kimiko feel a little less afraid. He chuckled a little and said, "Geez, calm down. I wasn't going to commit suicide!" He swiveled his head back around to look, proudly up at the machine looming above them. "This is my greatest invention- the Multiplier! Once I walk through this, my strength will be multiplied by twice Raimundo's, and it'll increase my muscle mass by 75! I'll finally have a firm, toned, sexy body, even better than Rai's! And it'll all happen in two minutes!"

Kimiko stared over at him, her mouth agape. Out of all the crazy, body-enhancing schemes he'd come up with, this was by far the craziest…and all because he wanted her to like him. "But…that's impossible!" she cried. "It takes months of training before you can…"

"Not anymore," Jack interrupted, the same maniacal grin spreading onto his face. "Because I have yet again found a way to achieve the impossible!"

"But…but…" Kimiko continued to stutter. "What if…it doesn't work like you expect it to? What if this is all nonsense, and it doesn't even work?"

"Of course it'll work," Jack answered, still beaming. "Don't you think I would've made sure of that beforehand? I tested a similar experiment on a bit of the local wildlife before I even considered doing it to myself…"

(-)

"AAAAAAUGH!" a little voice screamed in terror. Clay poked his blond head around the corner of his cubicle. "Omi?" he asked. "What's the matter, there pard'ner?"

"RUN!" Omi yelled, zooming straight past him and into the inner sanctums of the Xiaolin Temple. "Evil mutant wrestler squirrels!"

"What the…?" Clay wondered aloud. "Now that's just hogwash." But, to his disbelief, a second later, two overgrown, muscular squirrels burst through the wall, standing upright and wearing wrestler's belts. "Well, I'll be darned…" Clay said under his breath as he stared up at them.

(-)

"B-But…" Kimiko continued, the fear returning to her chest. "What if something goes wrong? You can never tell with machines. Some wire could go haywire and you could come out looking like a hulking mutant monster!"

"Well, it's better I be a hulking mutant monster, then," Jack replied, easily waving her off. "I'm unattractive enough as it is, so what difference does it make?"

Kimiko's body weakened, looking into his happy, determined mask, and of course this allowed him to slip out from under her. He really did have low self-esteem issues…and because of her. "No, Jack…" she started to say. "Don't do it. I don't want anything to happen to you. What if it hurts you?"

"Then you can just use the Rag of Resurrection on me, if you're that worried," he replied.

"No!" Kimiko repeated. "I don't want you to do this…" By now, frustrated, anxiety tears were appearing under her eyes. It was unusual, because normally with these feelings she'd be blowing up at the person she was arguing with. However, this time, she stopped herself from yelling, because she didn't want to hurt Jack any more than she already had. "Stop this. Please…"

"That I don't understand," Jack said. "But it doesn't matter." He smiled forcefully and stood back up in front of his ingenious invention. "In just a few minutes, everything will be better. Prepare to meet the new Jack Spicer!" At last, he took a hesitant step just above the moving belt. In a second, he'd be slowly moving down that dreaded corridor.

Kimiko gazed up at him through her glassed eyes. _What happened to him?_ She wondered, longingly. _What happened to that other Jack? The one that made me laugh on the first day…the one that saved my life…the one that was so happy when I brought him a burger? What happened to that Jack? What happened to that sweet…_cute _Jack? _No…there was no way she was going to let him destroy himself like that. She had to perform her duties as a Xiaolin Dragon…and one of those was to protect their weak, precious Dragon of Metal at all costs. "_Nooooooo_!" Kimiko defiantly screamed, gripping tightly to Jack's legs, the tears streaming from her cheeks.

It seemed she was successful. Naturally, Jack lost his balance and went tumbling over backwards and away from the machine. He slammed, head first against the basement pavement, and immediately began to struggle upwards.

That was when Kimiko looked up and noticed that even he was shaking. He was afraid too. "W-Why did you do that?" he asked, his voice shaking along with his body. "Isn't this…what you want?"

"No!" Kimiko said, calming down a little, but still choking on her tears. "I never said that! _Rai_ said that. He doesn't know everything about me…"

"B-But you hate me. You _still _hate me. You'll never like me…the way I am…" Now _his _voice was starting to waver a bit, with hers.

"I never said that either…" Kimiko replied, at last letting go of his legs and shifting her arms up, pulling herself into a sitting position, leaning towards him. "I only disliked you before because you were evil."

"I was only evil because it was easier," Jack tried to explain. "I should probably go back…I can't survive in a place like this. It's much easier wanting to be hated…and if you end up being loved instead, then it's okay. …But wanting to be loved, and being hated instead…" Now, Jack couldn't stop up his emotions any more, and a teardrop trail was streaming down his left cheek. "M-maybe I get tired of always looking so stupid…maybe sometimes I get tired of being laughed at… How can you like someone…like me?"

"Jack…" Kimiko gently whispered. She moved closer, and slowly, softly wrapped her arms around his body. It didn't matter what he'd done, or what he looked like. "You didn't have to do all this. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have a tan. You don't even need to have a strong body. I've seen you…how you really are. Not the evil one…not the fake ones…not the crazy one…I like you with none of those extra add-ons…nothing else…" She leaned, protectively against his chest. "…just you. Please…please, don't destroy that. I won't like the "new Jack Spicer."

Jack, who was crying along with her, reached out, and hugged her back. He leaned his face against her soft hair, and she could feel his moist cheek pressing to her head. "I…love you, Kimiko," he softly told her, in a strained whisper.

"I love you too…" she answered. "…When you're you." So, there they stayed, on the floor in the middle of the laboratory, embracing for several minutes.

Jack squeezed Kimiko tight. She felt like he would never let go of her…and she didn't mind. It was so comfortable there, against his warm body… And when she finally looked up, she saw Jack's face, smiling in that radiant, truly joyful way. And she suddenly felt that he was indeed attractive…more than Rai could ever be.

Kimiko smiled back up at him, and pressed her lips, softly against his left cheek, where the last of his tears were drying. "…There you are, Jack."

At last, after a few more minutes of silent hugging and nuzzling, Kimiko pulled a bit away, and asked, "So, you promise, no more crazy exercising and fooling with your body?"

"…Does that mean no more protein shakes?" Jack said, grimacing over at her.

"Well…if you wanted to still have them…"

"Are you kidding me?" Jack said with a little laugh. "Those things are so disgusting! I'm never drinking another protein shake for as long as I live!" The two of them broke into relieved laughter, and Kimiko couldn't help but give him another hug for that. At last, they both got up and fixed everything that had been knocked askew.

Jack stepped over to a panel on the side of the wall. He reached to press a red button inside.

"Wait!" Kimiko cried, worriedly. "What does that do?"

Jack beckoned for her to stand next to him. "Just wait," he said again, the same smile suspiciously lighting up his face. "You're about to find out!"

Kimiko glanced back at him, but trusted that now he wouldn't do anything like that again. At last, Jack slammed his hand against the button…and with a deafening boom, the entire Multiplier exploded, neatly returning to scrap metal once again.

Kimkiko smiled and giggled in relief. She clapped her hands together, happily. "Yea! Those were some awesome fireworks, Jack!"

Jack grinned back. "Why, thank you. It's just a natural talent, I guess." And with that, Kimiko threw her arms around his neck once again.

(-)

The world seemed to have calmed down, and Kimiko felt as if none of those terrible, tense events had even occurred. She was hanging, comfortably on the back of Jack's high-backed office chair in contentment. She was having such a good time that she didn't even think about her surroundings or her company. Jack had been showing her all kinds of things on his computer, and once he even let her play a little included pinball game. The Jack-bots, now suddenly activated, were walking or floating around, waiting on them.

At this moment, Kimiko was leaning over Jack's shoulder as he sat in front of the screen. Beautiful, fluid 3-D animation was running across the thin substance, and the blissful Japanese girl was transfixed by the sight. It was hard to believe that this seemingly cold-hearted, egotistical boy had created such a thing.

Jack was also strangely comforted, and affirmed by her presence. He was suddenly sharing so much with her…personal things that he never would show anyone before. Yet he felt strangely safe displaying them in front of her. Kimiko had already made it very clear…she wouldn't just reject him like everyone else. At last, he thought he understood the real origins of Julie's Meltdown attack. Jack was Metal…and Kimiko was Fire. She was melting him.

As he clicked the video off, he accidentally clicked something at the bottom of the screen. Suddenly, a very familiar picture, at least to him, flashed onto the monitor. For the first time in an hour, embarrassment and fear flickered back into him. This picture he definitely never wanted anyone to see, even in this comforting time. He grabbed the mouse and tried to click it away before she could comment, but it was already too late.

"Who are they?" Kimiko's voice piped up, freezing Jack's arm exactly where it was. "Some relatives of yours?"

Jack sighed. There was no backing out now- she'd already noticed and now he'd have to explain. "That's me…and my father."

Kimiko blinked, interestedly. The tall man to the right was frowning dourly at the camera in a business suit. He had dark brown, slicked back hair and little reddish eyes. She had to admit, the more she looked at him, that he did resemble Jack, in facial features. They even had identical scowls. The scribbled label underneath him read "Henry Y. Spicer".

Finally, the little figure that Jack had identified as himself only remotely resembled him. In this digitized photograph, he was only a toddler, and it seemed the camera had done a good job of capturing his innocent youth. The tiny boy was hugging an oversized plush teddy bear, and laughing at some private joke. It still looked strange to see him so normal. This boy had normal skin, along with his light freckles, and the strangest sight was the scraggly, dark orange-colored hair that covered his round head. Yet, this was the truth, because beneath the toddler, a label read "John Henry Spicer".

"…John Henry?" Kimiko questioned. "That's your full name?"

"Yeah…" Jack admitted through gritted teeth. "If you thought _I_ was egotistical…Dad wanted to name me after himself, but Mom wouldn't have it, so they eventually settled on Henry for my middle name. And I hate that 'John Henry'. It sounds like the name of some explorer…or a pilgrim."

Kimiko giggled a little, but then turned her attention to the screen. "…Awww, you were so adorable! I can't imagine how your mother was able to leave you like _that_."

Jack frowned at this comment. "Well…thanks? Actually, she was in this picture…" he tapped the smooth computer screen on the left side, where the picture seemed to abruptly stop. "…After she left, and Dad found out that she was one of the Xiaolin Warriors, he desperately tried to eliminate all memory of her, by destroying her pictures and throwing out all of her belongings. Sometimes, he even pretended that he had never even been married…and the sad thing is, he succeeded most of the time."

Kimiko's smile drooped and her feelings of comfort immediately disappeared. Why had she brought that up? Once again, she was only helping to upset Jack further. Thankfully, he simply clicked the picture off, but to her dismay, he left the computer and knelt beside the pile of scrap metal that over the course of the last half hour, he had been transforming into yet another Jack-bot.

Kimiko slowly lifted herself from the soft chair backing, and kneeled next to him. "…I'm sorry," she confronted him. "I shouldn't have said anything about…"

"Nah, it's okay," Jack reassured her, trying to flash a bolstering smile to accompany it. "I don't remember my mother anyway, so it doesn't upset me that much…"

When Kimiko didn't respond, and only stared gravely at the half-finished robot, Jack fell silent, and resumed his work. A minute or so later, he lit up when he noticed Kimiko's fascination with the work. "Oh! Yeah, that's right, I have something for you. Wait right there."

Kimiko sat back against the cold, concrete floor and gazed, suspiciously after him as he dashed off to a cabinet next to the computer. Moments later, Jack returned, clutching a thin rectangular device in his hand. He held it out, and Kimiko saw its little screen light up, the familiar pink panda backdrop flickering back at her.

"…My PDA!" she cried, in disbelief. She wrenched it from Jack's hand, worried at first, but when she glanced back up, she realized what had really happened. "…You fixed it?"

Jack nodded proudly, but then turned away, as if suddenly remembering some terrible bit of information.

Kimiko was silent for a long while. "You didn't…look through my diary, did you?" Jack remained stonily silent, which she took as a 'yes'. "I…I'm really sorry…" she started to excuse herself. "That was…from a long time ago…from before…" Kimiko felt horrible remembering all the things she'd written in her private diary… Once, she'd written about how she wanted to go out with Rai, and written her name as Kimiko Pedrosa…while in some other entries, she'd written a few very mean things about Jack, and some entries were even accompanied by simple caricatures. Kimiko suddenly felt embarrassed about all the things she knew Jack now knew about her. …But it was only natural. In an odd sort of way, they were only bonding…getting to know more about each other…even the secrets they both thought they'd never tell another living creature.

Kimiko squeezed her arms around Jack, for the umpteenth time, trying to comfort him and thank him at the same time. "But that's over now," she declared. "You're not like that anymore…and I'm not like that anymore."

"Yeah, I know," Jack replied, looking down at her. "Everything's so different…"

"So," Kimiko spoke up after a moment more of silent hugging. "Shall we make our way back out into the daylight? The others are probably wondering what happened to us."

"No." Jack got to his feet and walked over to a table, where his brown, battered suitcase was lying open with a few articles of clothing spilling out of it. "They're probably wondering what happened to _you_."

Kimiko stood up and gazed, confusedly over at the half-packed suitcase. "Jack, you don't mean that you…?"

"I said that I'd lay off all the crazy exercising stuff," he reasoned. "I never said that I wasn't still leaving."

"But _why_?" the concerned Japanese girl cried, rushing up to the table's side, her jet black pigtails bouncing when she stopped abruptly. "Didn't I make you feel better at all?"

"Of course," Jack replied. "But it's true. You don't need me here. Master Fung even said so himself- the Dragon of Metal is an extra, unnecessary power. And besides, I'm so far behind you guys. I'm holding back your training, since you have to wait for me to catch up before you learn any new techniques. The others don't really feel comfortable with me here; I can tell…"

Kimiko's smooth face contorted into an anxious, disappointed expression, thin eyebrows pinching together. She clutched her hands together as she pressed them against the tabletop. "…But where would you go? You don't want to go back _there_, do you?"

"Oh, I'll make due," Jack tried to assure her, smiling suspiciously. "After all, I am a boy genius. I should be able to survive on my own…" Kimiko frowned at that, because, having known Jack for this long, she knew better.

"I'll still write and everything. You can even come visit if you want…"

The disheartened girl once again tried to object, but there was no stopping him once he had really made up his mind about something.

Later that afternoon, she trudged back to her cubicle, confused and doubtful. It just didn't make any sense… She'd just been there with him…and he'd told her that he loved her…so why in the world was he leaving? She figured she should've made him feel more accepted at the temple. It didn't make sense…it never made sense, and that night, Kimiko could barely sleep because her head was in a whirl over this whole Jack incident.

(-)

"Nice of you to join us, recluse."

"Er…I never meant to…"

"Welcome back above ground!"

"Omi, geez, you make it sound like he came back from the dead!"

"…Well, perhaps he has!"

Now, it was Kimiko leaning, pensively against the low table as she watched her friends speculate over Jack's return to the realm of the living. The confused goth had decided to join them once more for breakfast before breaking the news. So, needless to say, Kimiko had been trying to eat as slowly as possible and drag the breakfast period out for as long as she could. In fact, she still had half a pancake with its strawberry topping sitting near the edge of her plate.

She glanced nervously over when she noticed that Jack had already finished and was now sifting through his luggage. In a few minutes… Of course, Kimiko hadn't told the other three about what had happened last night. They might not believe her, or look down on her for her sudden attitude change. Sure, it really shouldn't matter, because Jack was just another one of them, but it was still hard to shake that ages-old mindset that he was an enemy. Little did she know, Raimundo, Omi, and Clay would have been perfectly happy with her decision. Kimiko turned her head back down to the half-finished plate in front of her, and sighed.

"What's the matter, Kimiko?" Omi finally asked her, swiveling his little body in her direction. "You seem so up in the compost heaps."

"Oh. It's nothing," she simply replied, batting her pigtails around, mindlessly. Now even Clay and Rai were staring at her. Something definitely wasn't right.

At that essential moment, Jack snapped his suitcase back together, grabbed the handle, and stood up, importantly at the head of the table. Naturally, Rai, Omi, and Clay looked up at him, expecting some sort of speech, while Kimiko looked away, unable to bear the thought of it.

Then, to her relief, the instant Jack opened his mouth to make his grand farewell speech, two bulky wrestler squirrels crashed into the dining hall, growling threateningly. Omi screamed and hid under the table, pulling the tablecloth over himself.

Clay stood up to defend him, grabbing a lasso off his belt and twirling it around. "Dern thing 're back again," he said. "I chased 'em off last night, but they're as stubborn as bulls at matin' season."

Kimiko immediately sat up, on alert.

Before Clay could even try to tame the savage rodents, Jack pulled out a green device shaped like a laser gun. He shot a blue-colored beam at the wrestler squirrels, and they both returned to normal size and strength when it hit them. The befuddled rodents scurried off, harmlessly, sniffing for food as they went.

"What was _that_?" Kimiko finally spoke to Jack for the first time since yesterday, gesturing at the device in his hand.

"Oh…" he sheepishly admitted, shoving the gun back into an unseen pocket. "…Strength reducer. …In case anything went wrong."

Kimiko slapped her head in desperation. Last night, she clearly remembered Jack stating that he had no way to reverse the effects of the Multiplier.

"Omi, the big, scary squirrels are gone; you can come out from under that tablecloth now," Rai teased, bending down to his level. Omi slowly crawled out from under the table, glancing warily around him. He finally stood back up again, when he didn't see any hulking squirrels in the area.

"So _you_ created them monsters?" Clay asked, turning around to face Jack.

Jack shook his head, listlessly. "Well, it's a long story…I'd rather not talk about it. Anyway, to get back to the matter at hand…"

Kimiko took a deep breath. She'd hoped that little intrusion would have been enough to make him forget about his desire to move away…but, unfortunately, it was going to happen anyway.

"…I'm leaving the temple," Jack at last finished, gesturing to his beat-up suitcase.

As expected, Rai, Clay, and Omi were dumbstruck. The three of them finally forced themselves to remember that incident at the lake… "If nothing changes tomorrow, then I'm leaving," he'd said. How could they have just forgotten about him after a statement like that?

"Jack…" Rai started to say, but felt so guilty that he couldn't finish.

"…we sincerely apologize…" Omi tried to sum up.

"Oh, no," Jack told them, in a slightly surprised tone. "It's not because of something you said or did."

"You're not going back to evil, are you?" Rai hesitantly questioned. "Because it would just be kind of…weird to fight against you again, after you've been here all this time…"

"Nah, I can't go back home, anyway. I told my father I was running away and never coming back," Jack answered. "But…I'll go somewhere. Maybe get a job working at a tech company or something…" A moment of awkward silence passed through the room.

"…But you can't leave!" Omi suddenly burst out. "You're the Dragon of Metal! We _need _you here!"

"You never _really _needed me," Jack argued back. "You were doing perfectly fine before I came along, weren't you? In fact, you were probably doing better, since now you have to slow down your training to wait for me to catch up. That's going to take _years_. Believe me, it'll be better for everyone if I just left now."

The dining hall fell uncomfortably silent once again. Jack did have a point…but, none of them really wanted him to leave just so that they could improve.

"But…Jack Spicer…" Omi struggled to explain. "We…"

"Never mind," Jack curtly cut him off. He turned away from the table and yanked his suitcase with him. "Just, good-bye, and thanks for the stay."

The others, and especially Kimiko stared as he hurried off downstairs. Even through the dense silence, they could all read each other's thoughts, and they were all thinking the same thing. That was one word- _Why?_

(-)

It was around 11:30, and the sun was shining bright in the sky, nearing noon. It did seem like the perfect time, didn't it? Jack Spicer was standing outside the Xiaolin Temple again, making final adjustments on his hover car. Hopefully, the darned thing would be working properly again, and he wouldn't have any landing trouble this time. The large vehicle hovered near the sliding paper doors, with the floating container of computers and robots bobbing up and down behind it.

Strangely enough, aside from the face paint, Jack was once again in full evil genius attire, Helipack and all. Separate from the Xiaolin Temple, he could wear whatever he wanted. That was the one thing he was looking forward to.

He looked out over the serene, intricate temple community and sighed. Once again, it was time for a change. Changes always seemed to occur so quickly for him. Finally, he forced himself away from the unusually comforting sight, and placed one foot in the driver's doorway of the hover car.

"Jack…" the sound of a familiar voice from the distance piped up, freezing him in position. When he finally turned fully around, Omi, Kimiko, Rai, and Clay were standing right there, at the doorway, staring at him. "You never let us finish this morning," Kimiko spoke up first. "We were trying to explain a few things to you…"

Jack opened his mouth to make some sort of objection, but their reappearance had stunned him so much that he couldn't speak.

"I have no idea where you got the idea that we only like you now because you have powers that we can use. Don't you remember what happened before? The way we accepted you into the temple when we found out you were the Dragon of Metal…and the way we tried to get you on our side, even before any of us knew about your powers. Omi saved your life that time…and then you saved mine. I don't think people who hate each other would do that. I tried to help you that other time…but I guess I really didn't help you at all to understand…" The disheartened Japanese girl trailed off, and fixed her gaze on her clutched hands in anxiety.

Jack stared at her for a few minutes, in confusion and wonder. He loved her, and still wanted to stay with her…but, he couldn't. The others wouldn't accept him. Even if Omi _had_ been kind to him a few times in the past, it didn't atone for the harsh manner in which he displayed his frustration with his inexperience. Somehow, though, as Jack stared at the little round-headed kid, all he could think about were those times when Omi had reached out to him.

Shifting his gaze to Clay only reminded him of the time when the burly cowboy had squash-hugged him, and when he had carried him to the bench when he'd fainted (which Kimiko had told him about later.)

It was even worse when Jack looked to Raimundo. He turned to the cocky Brazilian boy, hoping to find some resentment there…but Rai was probably the most concerned of them all. He most likely still felt like this departure was his fault. Then, visions began coming into Jack's head…when he and Rai had played video games together…when he came to give him advice…and when he saved him from drowning in the lake. He knew that guy probably didn't feel the same way…but it was almost like he'd been his best friend at the temple.

By this time, Jack was naturally beginning to reconsider his decision, but he had to clear up a few things first. "But…" he began. "…If you don't learn anything new, and have to waste time waiting for me, then you won't be able to properly protect the planet. I'm just holding you back. The Dragon of Metal isn't required. Why would you…?"

At last, that little yellow-skinned boy stepped forward, holding his head slightly down, respectfully, and cutting off Jack's sentence. When he at last had the attention of everyone in the area, he looked up, and straight into Jack's face…even through his ruby eyes. "Don't you realize, Jack Spicer? It might sound awkward and stupid when I say it, but…that doesn't matter to us. In fact, it's better that you stay and improve, even if we have to take a loss, because the power of five Dragons is much stronger then that of four Dragons. And most importantly…because we care about you. You've graced us all with your friendship for two months now, and we don't want that to end." Omi smiled up at Jack, and kept his hands tucked into his sleeves, Master Fung-style. "…You're a valuable friend to us now. We _want_ to have you here with us."

And then, it was finally too much for him. Omi stood, solidly in place, smiling, as Jack snapped into an emotional outburst, and broke into a run towards him. The overcome Dragon of Metal swooped down into a kneeling position, and caught his little yellow friend in a hug. Omi still continued to smile, gratefully, pressing against Jack's shoulder. Jack was leaning against Omi's little round shoulder in return, smiling as a stream of tears flowed down his cheeks again.

Slowly, Kimiko approached them from the side. "I think I know what that means…" she started, joining in the hug from the right. Rai and Clay followed, kneeling to reach the same level as Omi and Jack. The five of them wrapped their arms around each other, in a rare moment of visible love.

"Hey, Jack, why are you crying? I didn't make you sad, did I?" Omi finally wondered, looking up at the over-emotional goth in front of him.

"No…"Jack finally made efforts at audible speech. "…I…I'm happy. I've never…felt like…this before. No one's ever…really…accepted me like that…" He struggled against the feeling, but still continued to let his teary smiling show. "…St-st-stop it!" he stuttered, laughing a little, as the other Xiaolin Warriors pressed against him. "You're turning me into a…a sappy crybaby!"

"Newsflash, Jack," Kimiko joyfully teased, "You were always a crybaby. But, it's okay. We love you for it!"

Clay grinned and broke away, twitching his fingers, suspiciously. "Ya know what I think? I think Jack deserves a good 'ol Xiaolin Temple punishment for trying to leave us!"

"…What?" Jack asked, glancing over at him, his smile drooping a little. "…Punishment?"

"Yeah!" Kimiko agreed, breaking away from him for a moment. "That sounds like a great idea!"

"All right!" Rai added, a new smile spreading over his face. "Let's make him suffer!"

Jack froze, and looked around at all of them, his smile now completely dissipated. "But…I thought…" he began to whimper.

"Charge!" Omi gave the signal, and jumped onto Jack, tickling him with his fast little fingers.

"Augh!" Jack exclaimed, falling over backwards from not anticipating the event. His joyous smile instantly returned, and he began laughing.

Kimiko grinned upon hearing his lighter, true laugh, and jumped in on the side, beginning to tickle him as well. Soon, Rai and Clay too had joined in on Jack's "torture". Their victim was rolling around on the floor, his sides aching from laughing too much, and when they finally let him up, he had tears in his eyes again.

"That should teach him," Clay decided, grinning satisfactorily over at the hysterical Jack.

"Yeah!" Kimiko added, playing tough. "Don't you ever try to leave us again!"

"I won't!" Jack cried between chuckles. "I won't!" At last, he struggled to his feet, along with the rest of the Xiaolin Dragons.

"Well, it's good to have ya still on the team, pard'ner," Clay commented, for a second time.

"Yeah…" Rai slowly began to say. "I just couldn't let you leave. You know I feel responsible, but…I know how you felt, to not be appreciated and accepted in the group. I couldn't see the same thing happen to you. And…well, we're friends. Without you, I'd have no one to play Lethal Combat Mission with!"

"Thanks, Rai," Jack hesitantly replied. "You were really…my first friend…" Then, instinctually, the two boys stepped forward, and wrapped each other in a hug.

"See, I told you they were best friends!" Omi called in victory.

"Aww…" Kimiko said, a little grin spreading onto her cheeks. "They really do look so cute together…"

As soon as the two of them heard this, they shoved away from each other at the same time, falling to the ground. Then, they promptly began an argument over who had hugged who first, and who the gay one really was. As they bickered, Master Fung and Dojo happened to stroll out of the paper doors, and stared at them with confusion.

"Master Fung! Master Fung!" Omi cried, rushing up to them. "I need your help!"

"And what am I?" Dojo complained, slithering from Master Fung's shoulders. "Chopped liver?"

"Um…no. You're a dragon," Omi stated, confusedly.

"No, no," Dojo explained. "It's an expression meaning 'And what about me'!"

"Er…well, I guess you can help too."

"What is all this about?" Master Fung asked, cocking an eyebrow at the scene before him. "I though Jack was leaving the temple. He even came to me with his resignation."

"Nope!" Kimiko cried, happily butting in. "He's decided to stay! …With a little convincing, of course."

"And now, we need you to take a new Xiaolin Dragon portrait of us!" Omi cried.

Kimiko looked, surprisingly over at him. She couldn't believe that she'd forgotten all about that. "That's right! We haven't taken one with all five of us!"

Master Fung smiled as he received the news. "Well, everyone, line up over there," He pulled out a small camera and positioned it at the full group of them.

"Get in the picture, Jack!" Rai cried, dragging him up next to him.

"Huh?" Jack asked, glancing all around him. "What's going on?"

_Click!_

"Hey! Take another one! I wasn't ready!"

"Can we take a few more, with different poses?" Kimiko asked.

"Sure," the temple master replied, looking down at the device. "There are seven pictures left."

This time, Jack knew what was going on, and stood beside Kimiko, putting an arm around her. Then, just as Master Fung took the picture, she turned to the side, and unexpectedly kissed him on the cheek.

In the next pose they tried, Kimiko, Omi and Clay huddled together, while Rai and Jack made peace signs on the sidelines. And as they shifted around, smiling, and capturing their lovely togetherness, Jack slowly began to think.

_I finally have what I always wanted…to be respected and accepted…and real friends. All this, and I didn't have to implant some stupid robot chip in me… And now, even Kimiko likes me…who would want to rule the world, when you have all this?_

And then, Master Fung snapped the last of his pictures, and they broke into cheerful conversation.

Even to this day, down the paper halls of the Xiaolin Temple center, and through the red-carpeted meeting hall, you'll find one of these portraits hanging in a golden frame, right beside the altar. And underneath the happy picture, there is a label- "Official Xiaolin Dragons, 2005- Kimiko Toho (Fire), Clay Bailey (Earth), Raimundo Pedrosa (Wind), Omi (Water)…, and Jack Spicer (Metal). Together forever."

(-)

THE END

(-)

Post-authors notes!

Number of pages: 155 (that's not breaking my record of 182, but still…) (this chapter breaks my record for longest chapter!)

Time to complete: 3 months

Number of computers broken: 2

Soundtrack: "Beautiful Soul" by Jesse McCartney, "You Found Me" by Kelly Clarkson, various Evanescence and Hoobastank songs

Special Thanks: (in basic order of # of reviews)

Jadebell

DesiredStorm

Funkmaster

TamerTerra

DerryBabe

SpicerFreak

ChibiChaos Mage of Chaos

cdfe88

Cole the Demon Hunter

Gijinka Renaman

Nichrome

rubianca

The Kwiz

peaches and cream

Iron Brain

The Qing

music man

dbz422

Random useless background information:

Originally, this started out as a little "project" called Dragonian Destruction ("Dragonian isn't even a word!), which featured some of the same ideas (Jack being the Dragon of Metal, and his wearing makeup) as well as the Rag of Resurrection. In it, the original Xiaolin Warriors would chase Wuya and Katnappe around the world to try to get the R of R back from them to heal Jack, who had become suddenly, dangerously sick. This was before I had the whole awesome future world brainstorm.

This story's based on the nursery rhyme 'Jack and Jill' as you should know by now. Originally, Julie's name was Jill, but I had to change it when I saw that there were other characters here named Jill. Julienne sounds fancier than Jillian anyway.

A few deleted scenes:

(At the end, I originally intended for Jack to kill his future self)

Jack: No…I have…just…COMMITTED SUICIDE! (starts bawling)

(And when he first meets the guards in chapter 2…)

Jack: Ha! I'm not afraid of you. You're just a simulation; you don't exist! Ha ha ha!

Guard: (punches Jack in the face)

Jack: (dizzily) Wow…it feels so…_real_…(faints)

(there was another scene I deleted, somewhere after chapter 5, with the two of them in Jack's hover car, and Julie _never_ started talking to him)

Jack: GET IN THE CAR! (motions to Julie)

Julie: ………………

Jack: Get in the car?

Julie: (smiles and climbs in)

Q: How do you write such long chapters?

A: 1. I'm an only child, 2. I just love to write, and 3. I have no life

Also, I often have chapters written beforehand when I post them. Such as, I already had this chapter done when I was posting chapter 9.

…Sequel, anybody?

I do have some sequel ideas, under the working title Xiaolin Showdown: Elemental Ages. It'll be sort of a series to follow up on this story. Though he'll still play an important role in the end, this will hopefully take the focus away from Jack a little.

Jack: Hey! Did I just hear you say "take the focus away from Jack"!

EF: Yes, but you'll still be really important in the end. See, I want to appeal to a larger spectrum of XS fans…like, the Rai fans, and the Clay fans, and the…

Jack: You can't do this to me! C'mon, look at all the ideas I gave you! I'll even forgive you for the song torture! YOU'RE MY FAN! (is dragged away by a mysterious figure with cornrows)

Anyway, here's a look at what I'm planning…

The five Xiaolin Warriors must find their corresponding Element Orbs to combat a mysterious new evil. With the addition of a prejudiced gangster, a motherly legendary figure, and a brand new Dragon of Ice, they'll surely have their work cut out for them. But what happens when Jack finds not one, but _two_ Element Orbs, a few unexpected entities emerge, and the Warriors' newly enhanced powers are put to the ultimate test? Will they survive the second great Showdown War?

Don't expect it too soon, though. I do have the first couple of chapters, and have to proofread them, but I want to update my other fics before I start something new. A lot of the time, I kill myself with sequels…I can always think of them, but I hardly ever finish them.


End file.
